Cummings: ATF probe should consider gun laws
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, in the latest battle with his Republican counterpart on the House Oversight Committee, said Thursday that an investigation into a troubled federal gun trafficking operation should also consider the role U.S. gun laws play in violence on the Mexican border.
In a report released by the Baltimore Democrat on Thursday, in advance of a Capitol Hill forum he scheduled on the issue, Cummings argues that federal agents working to combat international drug cartels would benefit from tougher criminal penalties on straw purchases and trafficking.
Cummings, who is the top-ranking Democrat on the oversight committee, said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, has tried to “wall off any discussion of the nation’s gun laws” as part of the ongoing investigation.
“Trafficking firearms to Mexico is illegal. Anyone who buys an assault rifle on behalf of a Mexican cartel is a criminal,” the Baltimore lawmaker said. “Placing common-sense restrictions on criminals who supply guns to drug cartels does not infringe on the rights of law abiding citizens.”
Issa’s investigation has centered on a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives sting operation called “Fast and Furious,” in which agents allowed weapons to be sold to straw purchasers for Mexican drug cartels to discover how those guns were brought across the border. But the ATF lost track of many of those weapons, including two that were found at the scene of the murder of an ATF agent last year.
Republicans say Cummings’ focus on gun laws is beside the point.
“This is a predictable maneuver from a minority that has sought to obstruct the investigation into Justice Department sanctioned gunwalking,” said Issa spokesman Frederick Hill. “It will not affect the committee’s continued focus on a reckless operation that has been linked to deaths on both sides of the border.”
Cummings and Issa have battled publicly this year over everything from a high-profile investigation into the mortgage foreclsoure crisis to rules over who can call which witnesses to testify.
At a news conference Wednesday, President Barack Obama was asked whether he will consider replacing the current leadership at the ATF.
“My attorney general has made clear that he certainly would not have ordered gun running to be able to pass through into Mexico,” Obama responded. “I’ve made very clear my views that that would not be an appropriate step by the ATF, and we got to find out how that happened. As soon as the investigation is completed, I think appropriate actions will be taken.”
Comments
Maybe Rep. Cummings should consider closing down the border, that would stop the guns crossing the border! At least the ones not sent there by our government! Last time I checked it was already illegal to traffic firearms to Mexico! One might think that this was all planed from the start. That the guns the government secretly give to the drug cartels could be used for new gun control laws, but the whole thing blew up in their face! And to think Rep. Cummings would be so bold as to try and use that argument anyway? No, he wouldn't be that stupid!
Posted by: Lostwages | June 30, 2011 11:02 AM
So, the fact that the BATFE made dealers sell in contradiction of the law is reason to expand gun laws? All the laws you could think of wouldn't help if the ATF ignores them.
Posted by: Nate | June 30, 2011 11:15 AM
More pablum from Cummings who will never be competent enough to be a Congressman.
To even think about anything other in this hearing than the killing of a border patrol agent at the hands of Holder/Obama's failed policy of allowing thousands of firearms to get into the hands of the narco terrorists, and to USE THAT ISSUE to create more gun laws here, is the epitome of IGNORANCE AND STUPIDITY.
The entire affair by Holder?Obama was to use this in order to take Americans rights away.
Posted by: Shameless Cummings | June 30, 2011 12:25 PM
Tougher laws do nothing to combat this problem as long as the Liberals in the court system reduces the charge or gives out light sentences. What we need is people that are willing to enforce the laws that are on the books and prosecute the people that fail to follow the law. Maryland has some of the toughest gun laws in the country but if you look in The Congressman's own back yard, You will see the weakness in the court system that fails to do what is needed to protect the law abiding citizens of Baltimore.
Posted by: Barry B | June 30, 2011 12:49 PM
This is a case where someone in the government abused their authority and are in the midst of a coverup. Explain to me slowly using small words how giving the government more authority will help?
Posted by: Mark | June 30, 2011 12:56 PM
Are the guns the problem?
Or are they the symptom of the problem?
Who is it that are using these guns? And to what end?
How about if we address the actual problems for a change?
Hmm?
Posted by: MrRational | June 30, 2011 1:37 PM
On June 17, 1971, President Nixon told Congress that "if we cannot destroy the drug menace in America, then it will surely destroy us." After forty years of trying to destroy "the drug menace in America" we still *haven't* been able to destroy it and it still *hasn't* destroyed us. Four decades is long enough to realize that on this important issue, President Nixon was wrong! All actions taken as a result of his invalid and paranoid assumptions (e.g. the federal marijuana prohibition) should be ended immediately!
It makes no sense for taxpayers to fund the federal marijuana prohibition when it *doesn't* prevent people from using marijuana and it *does* make criminals incredibly wealthy and incite the Mexican drug cartels to murder thousands of people every year.
We need legal adult marijuana sales in supermarkets, gas stations and pharmacies for exactly the same reason that we need legal alcohol and tobacco sales - to keep unscrupulous black-market criminals out of our neighborhoods and away from our children. Marijuana must be made legal to sell to adults everywhere that alcohol and tobacco are sold.
"There's something extraordinarily perverse when we're so concerned about preventing addicts from having access to drugs that we destroy the lives of many times more people, either through untreated pain or other drug war damage".
Posted by: Jillian Galloway | June 30, 2011 4:52 PM