The Truth about Fast & Furious

[DanTex]

59. What I find interesting is that the very mention of guns "causing deaths"...

...invariably produces a unison cry of "GUNZ DONT KILL PEEPULZ" from the NRA crowd. And yet, somehow, when it comes to the Fast and Furious conspiracy theories, suddenly these same pro-gunners have no trouble blaming the death of Brian Terry squarely on the ATF.

In a way, it is refreshing to see pro-gunners agree that guns cause deaths, even if the only reason they are doing so is because they love strange conspiracy theories even more than they love repeating mantras. I'm not sure how they survive what I can only imagine is a life-threatening attack of cognitive dissonance that results from blaming guns for death only in the special case of guns that came from F&F, but I guess this is a step closer to sanity from their usual full-on denial.

The reality is that, when it comes to guns on the Mexican border, our weak gun laws are responsible for far more deaths than even the wildest Fast & Furious conspiracy theories could even hope to aspire to. As the Fortune article demonstrates, while there may have been an isolated case of gunwalking here or there by rogue agents like Dodson, the lack of effective gun laws is systematically allowing traffickers to get away with guns by the thousands, and preventing the ATF from legally seizing guns that are pretty clearly headed for Mexico. To even attempt to discuss F&F and gun trafficking without mentioning the gross inadequacy of our gun laws is simply dishonest.

It's not a surprise that the NRA crowd prefers the conspiracy angle to the facts. But this may turn out badly for the right-wingers. Any sane person who looks at the situation objectively, will quickly come to wonder why, for example, we don't actually have a statute against gun trafficking, despite the fact that numerous ATF officials have pointed out that this is needed to really slow or stop the flow of guns.

When the only people talking about F&F were teabaggers and militia members, things were a bit different, but the more mainstream attention this gets, the more the NRA types look like birthers with their devotion to crazy conspiracies, and the more they risk people wising up to just how many poeople are dying due the the fact that the gun lobby has been blocking badly need gun laws.