CBS evidence suggests Fast & Furious was linked to push for gun control

[Atypical Liberal]

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/12/was-fast-and-furious-all-about-gun-control.php

"Today, however, Sharyl Attkisson of CBS, who has been all over the Fast and Furious scandal and would, in a sane world, get a Pulitzer Prize, broke another scoop:

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation “Fast and Furious” to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales."

[NaturalHigh]

1. I have suspected that since the story first broke.

[EC]

2. Wasn't part of the point of the operation

was to find out how the guns were being bought and transported so they could remedy it? Wouldn't that require some new laws or regulations? Or at least enforcement and resource changes?

[jeepnstein]

3. They were shortcutting around existing laws to do it.

FFL's were told to allow the purchases. And the whole operation is just a drop in the bucket compared to the U.S. Department of States' Direct Sales program.

[Oneka]

4. I wonder how those direct sales program weapons,

Figure into the ,now infamous lie of ,90%.

[SteveM]

5. They created a self-fulfilling prophecy by allowing sales...

"losing track" of those sales, then pointing to the "network" established (chiefly by BATF) and calling for laws to remedy the "problem."

IIRC, one of the gun shops where sales were made informed BATF about the suspicious nature of the purchases, but the Bureau did nothing to stop the transactions.