BELLEVUE, WA – A stunning report alleging that many of the American-made guns showing up at Mexican crime scenes were originally purchased by the Mexican government should trigger an official investigation, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is demanding.
“Contrary to what America has been told for years—that Mexican crime guns are obtained illicitly from U.S. gun dealers thanks to lax gun laws here—it now appears the Mexican government may be a major source of those firearms,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Once again, it appears U.S. gun dealers and the Second Amendment have been taking the rap for violent crimes in another country, when the truth is staggering.”
Going back to 2010 and an Obama administration scandal known as “Operation Fast and Furious,” during which the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives office in Phoenix allowed some 2,000 guns to be “walked” into Mexico, American gun owners, retailers in the Southwest, and our gun laws were ultimately blamed for drug cartel violence south of the border. But now, veteran journalist Sharyl Attkisson and former ATF agent John Dodson have blown the whistle, again. Attkisson originally broke the story about the Fast and Furious scandal, and Dodson was the man who came forward 16 years ago to expose that debacle.
But now, the story has taken an alarming new twist, and CCRKBA is demanding full disclosure.
“The American people have a right to know the full truth,” said Gottlieb. “The movement of American firearms into the hands of Mexican drug cartels is now more than just an Obama administration scandal. This is no longer a tale about a rogue ATF operation and a bunch of gunrunners, it’s a scandal involving the Mexican government.
“Until we get some answers,” he added, “all U.S. government-approved gun sales to Mexico should be halted. We’re calling on Congress and the Trump administration to launch a joint investigation. The Mexican government had the audacity to sue American gun companies for problems it created in its own country. Mexico owes the U.S., its firearms businesses and its gun-owning citizens an apology, and instead of blaming us, they need to admit their own culpability for the bloody violence that is continuing to grip their nation.”