Pubdate: Mon, 20 Jun 2011
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2011 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298

HYPOCRISY, LOCKED AND LOADED

If Congressional Republicans are really intent on getting to the 
bottom of an ill-conceived sting operation along the border by the 
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, they should call 
President Felipe Calderon of Mexico as an expert witness.

Mr. Calderon has the data showing that the tens of thousands of 
weapons seized from the Mexican drug cartels in the last four years 
mostly came from the United States. Three out of five of those guns 
were battlefield weapons that were outlawed here until the assault 
weapons ban was allowed to lapse in 2004. To help him stop the bloody 
mayhem, he is pleading with Washington to re-enact the ban and impose 
other needed controls.

That is the last thing Representative Darrell Issa, a California 
Republican, wants to hear. He and Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa 
Republican, issued a report last week castigating the A.T.F. for an 
operation in which federal agents, hoping to track guns to Mexican 
cartels, monitored but did not stop gun sales to people suspected of 
obtaining weapons for those criminal groups. Two of the American-sold 
guns showed up at the scene of a fatal shooting of an American border 
patrol agent in Arizona last year.

The Justice Department has ordered an investigation, and it must be 
candid in assessing what happened.

Congress needs to be candid about how loophole-ridden laws have 
created a huge market for assault weapons, which end up in Mexico. At 
a hearing, Mr. Issa insisted, "We're not here to talk about proposed 
gun legislation." Federal officials in February sought authority to 
require gun dealers to report bulk sales of assault rifles only to 
have it blocked by a provision in the Republican budget. A 
responsible Congress would re-enact the assault weapons ban, outlaw 
uncontrolled gun-show sales and reform regulations that allow corrupt 
dealers to stay in business.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart