Behind the Headlines Video
06/09/11 Project Gunrunner
U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down last December. Immigration Agent Jaime Zapata was shot dead two months later.
Blame their deaths on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
ATF launched "Project Gunrunner" in 2006 to track guns bought by Mexican drug gangs.
Beginning in 2009, the Justice Department actively encouraged the sale of thousands of guns to known Mexican drug dealers. The guns that killed Agents Terry and Zapata were Gunrunner weapons.
Gun owners who refused to sell guns - sometimes hundreds at a time to buyers with shopping bags full of cash - were instructed to do so by ATF. They had little choice. ATF controls their licenses.
ATF surveillance video shows Mexican drug dealers buying 575 assault rifles in Phoenix last year in a project dubbed "Fast and Furious." Agents were prevented from making arrests as the guns crossed into Mexico.
One ATF supervisor ridiculed agents who complained. The Justice Department has ignored whistle blowers.
Dozens of Americans and thousands of Mexicans have been killed in border violence since 2009. Some, by Gunrunner guns.
Attorney-General Eric Holder testified to Congress he didn't know about the program. ATF, which reports to Holder, has had program details plastered on the Internet for more than two years.
It's time to shut-down Project Gunrunner and investigate the Justice Department's role.
U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down last December. Immigration Agent Jaime Zapata was shot dead two months later.
Blame their deaths on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
ATF launched "Project Gunrunner" in 2006 to track guns bought by Mexican drug gangs.
Beginning in 2009, the Justice Department actively encouraged the sale of thousands of guns to known Mexican drug dealers. The guns that killed Agents Terry and Zapata were Gunrunner weapons.
Gun owners who refused to sell guns - sometimes hundreds at a time to buyers with shopping bags full of cash - were instructed to do so by ATF. They had little choice. ATF controls their licenses.
ATF surveillance video shows Mexican drug dealers buying 575 assault rifles in Phoenix last year in a project dubbed "Fast and Furious." Agents were prevented from making arrests as the guns crossed into Mexico.
One ATF supervisor ridiculed agents who complained. The Justice Department has ignored whistle blowers.
Dozens of Americans and thousands of Mexicans have been killed in border violence since 2009. Some, by Gunrunner guns.
Attorney-General Eric Holder testified to Congress he didn't know about the program. ATF, which reports to Holder, has had program details plastered on the Internet for more than two years.
It's time to shut-down Project Gunrunner and investigate the Justice Department's role.
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