re: #145 goddamnedfrank

Good, now can you explain what about F&F was poorly planned and executed? Earlier you made the following claim about the program:

Now a new set of facts about the program has come to light:

So, with the fog of uncertainty lifted, will you bother trying to explain and defend your earlier assertion that the ATF screwed up? It appears there was nothing ATF could do to stop the sales and that they tried to have the suspects arrested only to be blocked by prosecutors, exactly what did ATF do that got people killed?

The fact is that it’s the laws that need changing. The same law that the Congressional Republicans refuse to even discuss as being part of the problem are what hamstrung the ATF and prevented them from arresting the straw buyers and attempting to interdict the weapons.

The ATF, as has been noted, advised dealers skeptical about a number of guns sales to let the sales through (merchants may refuse to sell someone a gun, so long as that refusal is not based on the prospective buyer’s race, religion, country of origin, sexual orientation…). That was clearly a mistake and it was a mistake made several times.

Moreover, the ATF kept the watching things go through without sounding the alarm for months after it had become clear their plan to bust straw buyers was not working. They did not go to a Plan B, but instead rode Plan A down in flames.