Thread: ATF will hold ‘roundtable discussion’ about Mexican gun traces

ATF will hold ‘roundtable discussion’ about Mexican gun traces
April 24, 2012

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will hold a “roundtable discussion” this Thursday in Washington, D.C. that may be aimed at justifying the multiple sales reporting requirement that grew out of the Operation Fast and Furious scandal last year. According to the notice from ATF:

WASHINGTON - The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) will hold a roundtable discussion Thursday, April 26, to discuss firearms trace data from the Government of Mexico.

The trace information discussed will cover firearms recovered by law enforcement and military officials at crime scenes in Mexico for calendar years 2007-2011 and submitted to ATF for tracing. This information will be available to the public on the ATF website following the roundtable. ATF will not discuss any other firearms recoveries in Mexico which have not been submitted for tracing or any investigations.

ATF will also release trace information for firearms recovered in Canada and the Caribbean and submitted to ATF for tracing between calendar years 2007 and 2011.

WHO: ATF Special Agent John Hageman

WHAT: Release of Government of Mexico Firearms Trace Data

WHERE: ATF Headquarters
99 New York Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20226
WHEN: April 26, 2012
TIME: 2:30 p.m.

NOTE: Media representatives should plan to arrive at the ATF Visitors Center by 2 p.m. in order to have sufficient time to clear through security. Please do not bring cameras or any recording devices for broadcast or publication purposes.This is a pen-and-pad only media event. All foreign media must contact the ATF Public Affairs Division at (202) 648-8500, at least 24 hours in advance if they plan to attend the event.

All media must present media credentials and U.S. government-issued photo identification at the ATF Visitors Center. Please call the ATF Public Affairs Division at (202) 648-8500, if you have questions
More information about ATF and its programs is available at www.atf.gov.

The agency has been under fire for more than a year because of Fast and Furious. The fact that cameras and recording devices will not be allowed may raise a few eyebrows, since two of the leading news agencies on the Fast and Furious probe have been CBS News and Fox News. An ATF spokesperson called to advise that this is not a "true media event" but is designed to provide details on how the agency got the numbers.

ATF launched the operation in 2009, ostensibly as an effort to track the movement of illicit guns from the United States to Mexico. However, during early hearings before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chaired by Congressman Darrell Issa, ATF whistleblowers stressed that they would have never allowed guns to “walk” as part of an investigation, as happened in Fast and Furious.

E-mails obtained by congressional investigators suggest that recovered guns became fodder in the ATF’s effort to require gun dealers in four southwest states to report multiple long gun sales. The firearms industry opposed that measure, and gun rights activists have assailed it as an attack on gun rights.

Revelation of that e-mail exchange has convinced many people that Fast and Furious was far more than jut an investigation into illicit gun trafficking. Many people believe that the operation was designed to pump up the numbers of recovered U.S.-origin firearms at Mexican crime scenes to justify the Obama administration's early-expressed desire to renew the ban on so-called "assault weapons" that expired in 2004, and provide "proof" about allegations that the majority of guns found at those crime scenes came from this country.

E-mails from this column to the offices of Rep. Issa and Senator Charles Grassley did not immediately garner responses.

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