No Excusing the A.T.F., or Congress

Editorial, The New York Times

No Excusing the A.T.F., or Congress

Published: July 28, 2011

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — perennially hogtied by the gun lobby’s power over Congress — made a colossally dumb decision when it concocted a sting operation that let 2,020 high-powered weapons slip across the border into Mexico.

The goal of Operation Fast and Furious, begun in 2009, was to tolerate suspicious large-scale purchases of assault weapons on the American side of the border in order to track the guns all the way up the Mexican drug cartel ladder and then score major arrests. It turned to dangerous folly as A.T.F. agents in Mexico were kept totally in the dark while their superiors botched surveillance.

Some of the guns turned up in deadly shootouts, including one in which an American border patrol agent was slain. At least 122 of the guns have been recovered from crimes in Mexico; 1,430 are still unaccounted for.

“The impact of all this has been devastating,” Lorren Leadmon, an A.T.F. intelligence official, told a Congressional hearing, apologizing for the ill-conceived and poorly executed sting. The hearing chairman, Representative Darrell Issa, rightly criticized the A.T.F.’s failure. But he cravenly insisted the hearing must not address the far larger problem of repairing the nation’s shoddy gun controls.

The Obama administration has had to resort to executive directive to circumvent the gun lobby and require border gun shops to begin reporting multiple-sale buyers of battlefield weapons. It is also important to note that for more than six years, the Senate has failed to confirm a permanent A.T.F. director as the gun lobby keeps the screws turned on the agency.

Congress is right to call the A.T.F. out for this inexcusable failure. A responsible Congress — one interested in more than just scoring political points against the A.T.F. and the White House — would restore the ban on selling assault weapons and ensure that the A.T.F. has strong leadership and the authority it needs to protect public safety