Government Doing What Government Does
Hear ye! Hear ye! The Department of Justice (DoJ) has decreed that all firearm dealers in states lying on the border to Mexico report multiple long-gun sales to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF):
The Obama administration implemented its most aggressive and controversial gun measure to date Monday when it ordered dealers in four Southwestern states to report multiple sales of semiautomatic rifles to the federal firearms bureau.
The rule, which had been opposed by the National Rifle Association and many members of Congress, takes effect immediately and is meant to stem gunrunning to violent Mexican drug gangs.
Let me get this straight, gun dealers are supposed to report multiple gun sales of long-guns to the ATF in order to stem the flow of guns from the United States into Mexico? But the ATF is the agency that was caught allowing firearms to be smuggled across the border. Doesn't that create a conflict of interest?
Remember that these gun dealers were the ones who tried to report suspicious purchases to the ATF and, instead of being told to not make the sale, were order to make the sale. This is a classic example of the government creating a problem, declaring the problem to be caused by a fault of the people, and then moving in with new regulations claiming that is the only way to fix the problem.
Make no mistake, these guns were not let across the border due to a lack of gun laws. The gun dealers tried to stop the sales but where ordered by the ATF to make the sales. That is what the congressional hearing over "Operation Fast and Furious" is about. The ATF were caught because two border patrol agents were murdered using guns that the ATF allowed to be smuggled across the border. The proper response to this situation would be to abolish the ATF immediately.
But blaming one of its own agencies isn't what the government is all about; it prefers to use tragedies it has cause to further increase it's control over the populace.