Control the ATF, Not Guns

Floor Speech

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Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, under the ATF's Operation Fast and Furious, straw purchasers bought and sold guns to Mexican drug cartels while the ATF watched. It is hard to understand why the ATF is complicit in the drug smuggling business. Maybe the government hoped it would lead to more gun control, but unfortunately, it led to murder.

Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and ICE agent Jaime Zapata were killed by guns that were trafficked into Mexico under this operation. Rather than investigate this ill-conceived and dangerous operation, the Federal Government is doing what it does best, creating gun control regulations to solve a problem it created. The President's new discriminatory Executive order requires border States to report purchases of two or more rifles to the ATF, the very agency that purposely and incompetently let over 2,000 guns go to Mexico, 1,400 of which are still missing. This administration ignores the obvious. It's not the gun; it's the shooter. And in this case, it's the Federal Government's recklessness and stupidity that led to at least two murders. It's time to control the ATF, not guns.

And that's just the way it is.

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