Fast and Furious, Root Cause Analysis

Currently Eric Holder is screaming that the cause of guns going into Mexico was because of a “lack of gun control.”  There’s one problem with that though, it is false.  Not only is that statement blatantly false but in light of the evidence, given Operation Fast and Furious, gun control is what allowed those guns to walk to Mexico.  While it may seem humorous and a joke, the fact is it’s true.

I have largely been silent on Fast and Furious for one major reason.  There are a lot of other people covering it better and more in-depth than I possibly could.

To start off for those who are familiar with the term, root cause analysis is something used in engineering to identify problems to come up with solutions that don’t just hide the problem.  Ultimately proper root cause analysis should trace the problem to a point where you can turn the issue on and off like a light switch.  Now we’re going to trace back through the events and find the point where we can turn this issue that would turn this problem on and off.

What was Fast and Furious?

Fast and Furious otherwise known as Operation Gunwalker, was an operation conducted by the ATF under the guise of busting Mexican drug cartels.  This was done by forcing FFLs to complete illegal firearms transactions, purchasing firearms and handing them over to known criminals, and otherwise circumventing current law for criminals.

The ATF didn’t just allow guns to flow into the hands of criminals, but actively encouraged the practice. They purposely cleared transactions that were flagged. They performed the straw purchases themselves, delivering the weapons to known criminals. They instructed dealers to go ahead with transactions the dealers could tell were not “honest”.

Often when agents had followed the firearms they were told by their superiors to let the recipients go and not to follow them.  All of these actions violated existing law, yet the cause, as purported by Eric Holder, was a lack of gun control.

How did gun control cause Fast and Furious though?

The most direct route is the fact that this whole program was done with the mind of expanding gun control.  New gun control legislation and powers were the motivator behind the program.  Even as the program crashes and burns, pushes for new legislation based of the inflated numbers of Fast and Furious keep appearing.  The results of the program were used to force the long arms registry and to bolster support for additional funding for the ATF.

However the actions of the ATF have common threads with different agencies.  It is all a quest for money and power.  So we have to look back further to where the ATF got the root of its power and what allowed them to use this power to try to gain more.

The ATF is responsible for overseeing FFLs and ensuring adherence to existing firearms laws.  The can put a business that works in firearms under faster than any other.  The agency can halt a FFLs license during an investigation which can easily put them out of business.  So when the ATF asks a FFL to do something illegal, there ATF has all the leverage to make the dealer comply.  The only other option is for the FFL to go out of business under the weight of the ATF.

The ATF gained this power and latitude under the Gun Control Act of 1968.  Unsurprisingly allegations of abuse led to the Firearm Owners Protection Act to attempt to rein in the ATF.  The FOPA also stated different registry’s were prohibited from being enacted or run by the ATF, one of which they are attempting in the wake of Fast and Furious.

The depth of the corruption within the ATF and its drive to seek power through runs even deeper back to the National Firearms Act of 1934.  This provided the ATF, which was under the department of the Treasury at the time, the ability to enforce the newly created firearms laws.  This law laid the foundation for what would become the power-hungry space the ATF occupies today.

Both the GCA 1968 and the NFA 1934 are both pieces of legislation made in the effort to regulate firearms and limit their ownership.  The ATF blatantly violated existing laws during Operation Fast and Furious and went through considerable effort to arm and traffic firearms to prohibited persons.  All the while the ATF was clamoring for more gun control.  However many law-abiding citizens were left jumping through the hoops and difficulties of the existing maze of firearms legislation despite the appearance of lax laws created by the ATF.

Conclusion, Gun Control is the root cause

The ATF completely disregarded existing laws and regulations in conducting operation gun walker.  Many of those coerced into participating were in a situation that allowed the ATF leverage over them because of existing gun control legislation.  The ATF during the operation was petitioning congress for more gun control legislation, which it would be responsible for enforcement.

The ATF was also petitioning congress for additional funding for two reasons.  The first was a claim of a lack of resources to enforce existing law, which was false since they were expending resources to actually circumvent it.  The second was that it would need additional funding for enforcement of the expanded programs.

The root cause of Fast and Furious is gun control itself.  Existing gun control legislation provided the ATF with leverage over FFLs to coerce them into transactions they knew to be criminal.  Gun control provided the ATF with the resources and power to organize and conduct the operation.  Lastly, gun control was the root cause of the operation itself.  The operation was conducted in an effort to create a crisis that would warrant the further restriction of firearms.  This restriction would either be that of ownership by law-abiding citizens, or that in preventing new purchase by a law-abiding citizen.

Without the GCA of 1968 the ATF would not have had the leverage over a FFL to coerce them into proceeding with an illegal sale.  Without the NFA of 1934 the ATF would have never been the power-hungry beast it is today.

To say that a lack of gun control allowed Operation Fast and Furious is like saying a lack of prohibition let the DEA allow drugs to be smuggled across the border.  Oh wait, bad analogy, the DEA took part in Fast and Furious too.

If a lack of gun control allowed Operation Fast and Furious then violating the law to commit a treasonous act of war against a friendly neighbor is lacking in laws as well.

Taking blood dancing to a new low

Breda has informed us that fearless leader took dancing in blood to entirely new lows.

I’m at a loss for words.  It’s disgraceful and beyond measure.

Quote of the Day–The Inconvenience: 01092011

Says Obama, “What we do know is that such a senseless and terrible act of violence has no place in a free society.”

-Well bub, if we lived in a free society you wouldn’t have to worry about this.

[Everyone is dancing in the blood of that most traumatic event, even fearless leader.  The fact of the matter is, calling ourselves a free society because relative to the rest of the world we still are doesn’t make it so.  In a free society, the TSA, ATF, and DHS wouldn’t exist.  I would be free to purchase what ever I want as a law abiding citizen, and discharging a firearm with a suppressor wouldn’t result in Jail time.  Those little problems are just the tip of the ice berg.  -B]

Internet ID

Since our fearless leaders couldn’t pass the National ID bull crap.  Instead they feel that they can back door it.

It’s “the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government” to centralize efforts toward creating an “identity ecosystem” for the Internet, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said.

So, the government should centralize the Identification system.  Then they say this though:

“We are not talking about a national ID card,” Locke said at the Stanford event. “We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities.”

How can you have a centralized Digital ID system without some sort of national ID if it’s all controlled by the government?  This idea violates the Jews in the Attic test and should be promptly dismissed.

No one is above the law

Including Mrs. Obama

“You kind of have to drop the standard for the first lady, right?” the official explained late Thursday. “I mean, she’s pretty well liked and probably doesn’t know what she’s doing.”

She is a Harvard-educated lawyer.
Ignorantia juris non excusat.  Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse, and your status in government provides you no safety, if anything you should be held more accountable for your actions.

QotD: June-28-2010, Alan Andrews

At this point there no easy landing.

Best case:

Social Security gone

Medicare gone

Reduce taxes and pray that the private sector can pull out of the dive in time.

That’s about as likely to happen as Obama skipping a golf game to do some work.

Alan Andrews – “Do you know anything?”

I cannot really add anything to that, but I absolutely LOVE that last line. -B

Congressional budget cancelled?!

While the rest of us have been tightening our belts and shoe stringing our budgets.  Our congressional leaders have found it convenient to just skip the budget process all together.  The GOP is claiming that the 2011 budget has been canceled.

WE REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT 

THE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET

PLANNED FOR FISCAL YEAR 2011 HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO WASHINGTON DEMOCRATS’ OUT-OF-CONTROL SPENDING SPREE.

AN APOLOGY FOR THIS BETRAYAL OF AMERICAN TAXPAYERS DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE FORTHCOMING AT THIS TIME.

BE ADVISED THAT THE FOLLOWING SERVICES WILL BE INTERRUPTED:
 

Imposing the fiscal discipline economists say is needed to create jobs and boost our economy

Reining in the out-of-control spending spree that is killing American jobs 

Carrying out the “
most basic responsibility of governing”

Stopping middle-class tax hikes that will sock family budgets at the worst possible time

Providing the leadership on jobs and the economy that Americans say is sorely lacking

Protecting our kids and grandkids from the enormous debt burden Washington has placed on them

  

I don’t know how true it is as it could be a scare tactic from the GOP, but with Obama’s track record, it wouldn’t be surprising. Is the actual budget being dropped?

I find it ironic as well that our fearless leader talks about getting our spending under control.  Those of us in the real world know however that requires a balanced budget.  What a liar.

Health care

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Wednesday that Dr. Donald Berwick, an advocate of health-care rationing nominated by President Barack Obama to run Medicare and Medicaid, is “absolutely the right leader at this time” to run the government’s largest health-care entitlement programs.

So, someone who advocates rationing health care and who really likes the National Health Service of the UK has been chosen by Obama to run Medicare and Medicaid. Anyone see a problem with that?

In a talk he delivered in England in 2008 to mark the 60th birthday of Great Britain’s National Health Service, the bureaucracy that runs that country’s single-payer health care system, Berwick told the British that he loved their system. “”Cynics beware,” he said. “I am romantic about the National Health Service; I love it.”

When asked if Sebelius agrees with the following statement, she skirts around the actual question and then says she answered it when probed further for an answer.

“The decision is not whether or not we will ration care–the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open,” Berwick said in a June 2009 interview with Biotechnology Healthcare.

The government will pick and choose who gets healthcare by “rationing” it. Wasn’t something said about a death panel before the healthcare passed?

If government run health care is so great and cost effected, then why is the cost of health care in Canada rising?

Healthcare in Canada is delivered through a publicly funded system, which covers all “medically necessary” hospital and physician care and curbs the role of private medicine. It ate up about 40 percent of provincial budgets, or some C$183 billion ($174 billion) last year.

We were told that the health care bill will save money, yet it is costing billions to implement it. We were told that there would be no death panels, yet the plan is to ration health care, which would decide who is eligible for different forms of health care.

How do you like the health care bill now?