ATF fears budget cuts would imperil gun-trafficking fight at Mexico border

[alp227]

Source: The Washington Post

About three weeks before the deadly shootings in Tucson renewed a national debate about gun control, the White House budget office proposed steep cuts for the agency charged with enforcing federal gun laws.

When officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives saw the proposal, they concluded it would effectively eliminate a major initiative in the fight against firearms trafficking on the Mexican border, according to people familiar with the budget process but not authorized to speak on the record.

Project Gunrunner is a signature effort by the Obama administration to assist Mexico in stemming the flow of guns south of the border. Under the project, federal officials in Arizona last week arrested more than a dozen people named in a 53-count indictment alleging that a network of gun buyers and smugglers had planned to ship hundreds of weapons to Mexican drug cartels.

Dubbed "Fast and Furious," the investigation found traffickers purchasing 10, 20, 30 or 40 AK-47-style rifles at a time from gun shops in the Phoenix area. On one day in April, a couple now charged in the case paid $18,000 and walked out of a retail store with three .50-caliber, armor-piercing Barrett sniper rifles.

The proposed ATF cutbacks, which would amount to nearly $160 million out of a $1.25 billion budget request - a 12.8 percent reduction that would also be 3.6 percent below the current budget - are outlined in a preliminary budget document obtained by The Washington Post. ATF spokesman Scot Thomasson declined to comment, because the budget process was not complete.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/30/AR2011013003279_pf.html

[western mass]

1. Here's a thought...

Stop wasting money on the "war on drugs".

[Toon Me Out]

6. *****

Excellent suggestion.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. Classic government style budget poison pill

There are other things they could cut but they will only offer up and talk about things which they think will be untouchable due to recent events. Bureaucrats at their finest.

[Atypical Liberal]

3. I can see it now...

I can see it now. The head of a multi-national, multi-billion dollar drug cartel just gets off his private jet loaded with eight tons of cocaine, turns to his head logistics man, and says, "I want you to head across the border to Bob's Bait and Guns and pick up some firearms for us. I hear he's lax with paperwork."

Or do you think instead he might have connections in Central America or former Soviet client states to buy real military hardware by the crate?

[beevul]

4. The ATF itself, may at some point, find that relatively desirable.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x370996

Things do not look good for them.

[bemildred]

5. Is this some kind of joke? nt