NRA To Sue Feds Over ATF Intimidation Of Gun Sellers

NRA To Sue Feds Over ATF Intimidation Of Gun Sellers

Holder says measures are “appropriate” to stop flow of guns into Mexico even as feds caught directly shipping firearms to Mexican drug gangs

Paul Joseph Watson

Infowars.com

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

 The NRA is set to file a lawsuit challenging a federal “regulation” that requires gun merchants to report sales of more than one firearm directly to the ATF, a policy that is being enforced by harassment and intimidation of gun owners despite the fact that language codifying the measure was rejected by Congress back in April.

 “The N.R.A. is bringing the lawsuit in the name of two firearms dealers in Arizona. Its draft complaint, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, asks a federal judge in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to issue an injunction barring enforcement of the rule by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives,” reports the New York Times.
 “N.R.A. has always viewed this as a blatant attempt by the Obama administration to pursue their gun-control agenda through back-door rule making, and the N.R.A. will fight them every step of the way,” said Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the gun-rights group.
 The new regulation, which comes into force from August 14, requires all gun sellers in border states to report sales of more than one firearm directly to the ATF within 48 hours. Although reports have focused on high-powered semi-automatic weapons, the ATF letter sent to gun merchants also orders firearms dealers to report to the feds sales of “two or more pistols or revolvers, or any combination of pistols or revolvers totaling two or more.”
The new policy is already being enforced through harassment and intimidation, despite the fact that the language that would have codified it into law was removed entirely from a bill Congress voted on back in April.
 As we reported on Friday, the policy goes way beyond merely sending “demand letters” ordering gun retailers to comply. Firearms merchants have been ordered to spy on their customers by the ATF. Customers who purchased more than one firearm have also been the victims of intimidating home visits by federal agents.
Attorney General Eric Holder’s assertion today that the measures were “appropriate ones to stop the flow of guns from the United States into Mexico,” is laughable given the fact that the government itself was caught shipping guns to Mexican drug gangs under Operation Fast and Furious.
Fast and Furious was an ATF program that. “Sanctioned the purchase of weapons in U.S. gun shops and tracked the smuggling route to the Mexican border. Reportedly, more than 2,500 firearms were sold to straw buyers who then handed off the weapons to gunrunners under the nose of ATF.” Some of the weapons were later used to kill US Border Patrol agents like Brian Terry.
 The Obama administration and the ATF claim that the Fast and Furious program was part of a sting operation to catch leading Mexican drug runners, and yet it’s admitted that the government stopped tracking the firearms as soon as they reached the border, defeating the entire object of the mission, unless the mission was about pushing through gun control in the US and had nothing to do with the drug war.
 As the evidence clearly indicates, Operation Fast and Furious was likely a plot on behalf of the administration to discredit the second amendment. While the feds were selling guns to Mexican drug gangs, Obama was simultaneously blaming drug violence on the flow of guns from border states to Mexico.
 The ATF’s efforts to intimidate both gun sellers and purchasers also arrives months after President Obama told gun control advocate Sarah Brady that his administration was working “under the radar” to sneak attack the second amendment.
 During a March 30 meeting between Jim and Sarah Brady and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, at which Obama “dropped in,” the president reportedly told Brady, “I just want you to know that we are working on it (gun control)….We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”
 The quote appeared in an April 11 Washington Post story about Obama’s gun control czar Steve Croley.
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.