Fast and Furious - LaPierre Speaks Out

The National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre was interviewed by Newsmax on his beliefs on the "Fast and Furious" operation where thousands of firearms were transported across the US/Mexican border and into the hands of drug cartels. The article was published on newsmax.com on 10/14. It entailed having Federal Agents browbeat licensed firearms dealers into making firearms sales with which they themselves either not comfortable or would refuse to do without a DEA agent telling him to make the sale.
The weapons were ostensibly allowed (under the eyes of federal agents) to be brought across the border for the purposes of investigating where the weapons would wind up. Surprise! - They wound up in the hands of drug cartels!

This is not the case of an agent setting up a sting-type sale of a fake missile, explosive, drugs, etc. to a criminal or terrorist for the purpose of making an arrest. We are asked to believe that it would be of benefit to investigating agents to see where real guns would go.

I find this entire thing to defy any rational attempts at explanation. For years, the American public was fed cooked statistics to lead us to believe that the less than third world - horror show of mass murders, shootouts with Mexican Police and military, and Mexico’s descent into narco-state status was the result of American gun dealers and their customers who were supposedly supplying the criminals with the tools to commit their atrocities. A favorite statistic was that 90% of guns recovered in Mexico and then traced were found to have originated in the US. The part of the story that was not put out was that a tiny fraction of recovered guns were in fact traced in the first place. Only guns that appeared to have been likely to have come from the US were put through the tracing process. The incredible result of that practice was the magic number that was used in an attempt to sway the American public to support more restrictive gun laws in the US.

One of the weapons sold in this operation was used in the Murder of US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.

That's when the sloppily crafted web began to tear into pieces. A number of incredibly brave US Federal Agents stepped up and brought this story into the open. Thanks to Heaven for the Whistleblower Act.
Attorney General Eric Holder has been doing his best to try to keep himself from any blame, repeatedly insisting (in various versions of the story) that he did not know about it, or that he heard of the operation but did not know what it was.

The vast majority of evidence indicates that the cartels were obtaining their weapons in bulk shipment from Central America, (Wiki leaks) China, and other nations that manufacture AK-47 and similar firearms (The AK is copied throughout the world). Those that dreamt up this train wreck of an idea were apparently hoping that we would believe that someone could buy a weapon is the US for $400 to $500, then bring it to Mexico and sell it for the same price or a profit when the same weapons could be gotten for less than $100 apiece in bulk shipments from other countries.

Mexican President Calderon has been on this stump since shortly after assuming his office. The claim has been made over and over that if we in the US would just place greater restrictions on the sales of firearms such as AR-15s and AK-47s the situation in Mexico would not be what it is.

The leftist media has barely even given passing coverage to this travesty. In any other administration, the President and the Justice Department would be subject to Special Prosecutors, Senate Hearing, and hopefully criminal charges. I wait to see if this is even brought up as a political issue in the upcoming campaigns.

Later added note 10/21:

As reported by Neil Munro in The Daily Caller on this date, 40 of the 100 weapons recovered from a seizure of weapons from a high level "Enforcer" from the Sinaloa cartel were found to have arrived in Mexico via the "Fast and Furious" operation.