“Fast and Furious” is the scandal that keeps on giving, and what it’s giving is death. Last year, the Los Angeles Times linked one of the gun dealers involved in the ATF’s would-be sting operation to a gun used in the shooting in Garland, TX. On Wednesday, an ATF source leaked a similar story to Judicial Watch. According to the source, a gun used in the Paris terror attacks last year traces back to a gun owner who may have taken part in the “Fast and Furious” sting.
“One of the guns used in the November 13, 2015 Paris terrorist attacks came from Phoenix, Arizona where the Obama administration allowed criminals to buy thousands of weapons illegally in a deadly and futile ‘gun-walking’ operation known as ‘Fast and Furious,'” Judicial Watch reported. The investigative follow-up of the Paris weapon involved tracking a paper trail using a 4473 form, which documents a gun’s ownership history using serial numbers.
As Judicial Watch explained, the “Fast and Furious” scandal followed an ill-conceived attempt by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) to catch Mexican drug lords by selling them illegal guns. But the ATF lost track of the guns, and the weapons ended up being used in numerous attacks, resulting in the deaths of Americans, and, according to Judicial Watch, victims of the terror attack in Paris.
The organization detailed a Report of Investigation (ROI) filed by an ATF case agent, which “tracked the gun used in the Paris attacks to a Phoenix gun owner who sold it illegally.” According to Judicial Watch, federal agents “also found the Phoenix gun owner to be in possession of an unregistered fully automatic weapon.”
But the feds didn’t arrest the gun dealer. “The Phoenix gun owner that the weapon was traced back to was found to have at least two federal firearms violations–for selling one weapon illegally and possessing an unregistered automatic–but no enforcement or prosecutorial action was taken against the individual,” Judicial Watch reported.
Next Page: Is the ATF protecting the gun dealer in order to keep his connection to “Fast & Furious” a secret?
“Instead, ATF leaders went out of their way to keep the information under the radar and ensure that the gun owner’s identity was ‘kept quiet,’ according to law enforcement sources involved with the case,” the organization alleged. The group would not name its sources in the ATF, and the report on the gun has not been released to the public.
Judicial Watch quoted a “veteran law enforcement official,” who said, “Agents were told, in the process of taking the fully auto [sic], not to anger the seller to prevent him from going public.”
“It’s not clear if the agency, which is responsible for cracking down on illegal use and trafficking of firearms, did this because the individual was involved in the Fast and Furious gun-running scheme,” Judicial Watch conceded. An ATF spokesman, Corey Ray, told them that “no firearms used in the Paris attacks have been traced” by the agency. When asked about the leaked report, he said he was not familiar with it.
The guns sold in the “Fast and Furious” scandal have been used to murder hundreds of innocent people, including, most notably, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The aforementioned L.A. Times report revealed that the Garland shooter bought a 9-millimeter pistol at the “Fast and Furious” linked gun shop, despite drug and assault charges that should have raised red flags.
In April, the Obama administration finally released documents that showed the government’s efforts to stonewall investigations and mislead Congress. In March, another gun sold in the scandal was linked to a shootout in which three Mexican police officers were killed.
It is truly tragic that weapons sold illegally by the very agency tasked with cracking down on illegal gun sales would end up killing so many people. Someone needs to be held accountable for this.
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