Academic

THE SPIN IS KIND OF FRIENDLY, but the ATF gun-running story makes the L.A. Times. Key bit: Dick ?

By Glenn Reynolds

THE SPIN IS KIND OF FRIENDLY, but the ATF gun-running story makes the L.A. Times. Key bit:

Dick DeGuerin, who represents Houston gun dealer Bill Carter, owner of Carter Country, said the company is now being threatened with a federal indictment as a result of multiple sales to purported straw purchasers ? sales he said were not only reported to the ATF, but which federal agents encouraged Carter Country employees to complete.

“What’s going on now is some of these agents are scared of their own careers, and are afraid to own up to the fact that they encouraged Carter Country to go through with these sales,” DeGuerin said. “The breakdown came with, what did the ATF do with the information that Carter Country was delivering to them? Apparently, they didn’t do much.”

Background here. Bottom line: Hundreds or thousands of guns made it to Mexico with the ATF’s connivance, even as the ATF was loudly trumpeting that it was . . . finding U.S.-origin guns in Mexico. Was this a book-cooking PR operation, or just utter incompetence? Either way, seems like another candidate for budget cuts.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on February 06, 2011 (boomark / email).