John Diedrich and Raquel Rutledge of the [Milwaukee] Journal Sentinel start their investigative report on the ATF’s storefront sting program with a story that had my blood boiling but good, fueling my borderline hatred for the entirely superfluous band of arrogant fascists manning the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Check it out . . .
Aaron Key wasn’t sure he wanted a tattoo on his neck. Especially one of a giant squid smoking a joint.
But the guys running Squid’s Smoke Shop in Portland, Ore., convinced him: It would be a perfect way to promote their store.
They would even pay him and a friend $150 apiece if they agreed to turn their bodies into walking billboards.
Key, who is mentally disabled, was swayed.
He and his friend, Marquis Glover, liked Squid’s. It was their hangout. The 19-year-olds spent many afternoons there playing Xbox and chatting with the owner, “Squid,” and the store clerks.
So they took the money and got the ink etched on their necks, tentacles creeping down to their collarbones.
It would be months before the young men learned the whole thing was a setup. The guys running Squid’s were actually undercover ATF agents conducting a sting to get guns away from criminals and drugs off the street.
The tattoos had been sponsored by the U.S. government; advertisements for a fake storefront.
The teens found out as they were arrested and booked into jail.
What kind of monsters would entice innocent (or even not-so-innocent) youth into a government-sponsored criminal enterprise, convince them to permanently disfigure their bodies, expose them to danger and then destroy their lives in return?
The same bastards who blackmailed gun dealers into selling firearms to Mexican drug thugs, who used them to murder U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who had a Border Station named after him for his trouble.
OK, so, it gets worse. A lot worse.
Earlier this year when the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel exposed a botched ATF sting in Milwaukee — that included agents hiring a brain-damaged man to promote an undercover storefront and then arresting him forhis work — ATF officials told Congress the failed Milwaukee operation was an isolated case of inadequate supervision.
It wasn’t . . .
The Journal Sentinel reviewed thousands of pages of court records, police reports and other documents and interviewed dozens of people involved in six ATF operations nationwide that were publicly praised by the ATF in recent years for nabbing violent criminals and making cities safer.
Agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives employed rogue tactics similar to those used in Milwaukee in every operation, from Portland, Ore., to Pensacola, Fla.
The story goes on to detail other agents’ heinous tactics at other stings, also involving mentally challenged citizens. Damage to property without compensation (as above)? Check. Entrapment? Nothing but. Like convincing a rube to saw off a shotgun and then bring it back. The ATF also offered “sky-high” prices for gun, creating a black market for stolen guns. I repeat: they created crime so they could punish those involved. How many innocent people were victimized as a result?
The Journal’s report is comprehensive and damning in the extreme. The ATF is saying nothing about any of it. In fact, they’re refusing to release any information about their storefront operations.
The bottom line is clear: the ATF is a profoundly, fundamentally corrupt government agency that routinely breaks the law and endangers public safety. It should be disbanded immediately and its responsibilities reassigned to the FBI.
Correction.
The ATF isnt a rogue agency, because their very mandate is criminal.
As such they have no responsibilities to be delegated .Gun trafficking is an economic problem, not a criminal one.If anti gun states ceased their futile efforts at blocking gun sakes, there would be no black market to attract criminals to begin with.
And what sir, makes you think that the FBI is any more honorable? Being lead and started by a guy in a trenchcoat and a bra and panties??
Heh, good on you.
Hoover was an entertaining, if unusual, character.
What difference does it make what Hoover wore? If you want to discus the FBI’s track record fine, but a man’s private life should be private.
I agree that every man, woman and child has a right to their own opinion. I fought for freedom of speach, and though I may disagree with stance, I will continue to do so. What they did, was sat him down and showed him as much liberal anti gun propaganda as they could, before I burst in and raised hell. They gave him bullshit “facts” as well as showed videos of damage caused “by gun owners”. I found out while attempting to finish details of the firearms business I am trying to open. Thank god for friends in high places. It was stopped, and I am ACTUALLY being allowed to set up a safety/info class for all the parents AND students who wish to attend. It IS NOT school or city sponsored, but at my own expense. To me it is 100% worth it. I am asked questions daily by his friends and their parents. I can finally get true facts and solid information to the law abiding population here.
If the GOP candidate for President in 2016 runs on a platform of disbanding these lawless criminals, I’ll actually vote for him.
Then (the attack) happened and it became either you have guns or you don’t have guns.
Bullsh1t. It became either you wanted to take guns away from people or you didn’t want people to take away your guns. And WE didn’t start that.
OK has obama taken you guns and ammo away Yet? To all you paranoid rumor gun freaks this will never happen. You can stop hoarding ammo and components so the rest of us can purchased a few rounds on
occasion when we like to shoot a little. I know of people with more suppilies than they can shoot in a life
time and there still standing in line waiting to buy more. WHY?? This is a much larger problem than anyone wants to admit! To all you carpetbagging gun show A Holes who cleaned off store shelves to make a huge
profits may you die a lingering death. Common sense avoids a lot of gun owners and that is scary at best.
The shortage of ammo & components may never end as fear & ignorance has gripped the gun world!
YES! If they didn’t people won’t ccw.
Looks like one of those Archange Mosin Nagant Stocks…
Note that it is only legally ‘entrapment’ if the government agents coerce the persons into commuting a crime that they would not have committed if it were not for the coercion. The most famous case I can think of involved a women arrested for selling drugs to an undercover agent basically due to the fact that the agent badgered her and harassed her so much she decided to get her the drugs just to get her off her back.
Just saw this article, know it was posted a while ago, but….
Had almost the same result this summer. Son (in his 40s!) who really hasn’t shot much since summer camp many years ago won a nice o/u shotgun in a raffle at my brothers gun club. Used the opportunity to invite son, to go to my bro’s club to test the new gun, and bring eldest grandson(never shot, age 12) along. Brought my old crosman pellet gun and my brothers 22rifle/pistols to start grandson out on. Much like your story, both my son and grandson had a ball. Sure, my grandson stood somewhat leaned back, but we focused on the safety of where the gun was pointed, finger off the trigger, etc. and by end of day he was even standing “right”. One thing (more or less) at a time!
Well, even though it was in the 90s, we had a ball. I now have two “new” shooting buddies, and great memories that reminded my brother and I of learning to shoot from our dad and our great-uncle.
If you have the chance to introduce a new or returnig shooter, do it! It’s the only way our great American tradition will ever continue. And you will benefit too.
Thanx for the Frst article and keep at it
It’s a lot easier to chant ” guns save lives” than “it takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun”
Kindle is even cheaper. Would hate to support this kind of thing financially.
Somebody needs to make a poster with two images. One, labeled “gun control,” of a roomful of dead bloody students and teachers with a standing psychopathic killer with a smoking “assault rifle,” and another, labeled “Constitutional Carry,” of a roomful of wide-eyed students staring in wonder at a teacher with a smoking pistol standing over the body of a dead psychopathic killer, and a caption maybe like “Please choose one.”
The ATF has been useless since the day it was founded.
To collect (steal back) taxes and put mostly poor folk who were just doing what they had to survive and put food on their tables for their families.
Id like to see one good example of the ATF doing any good for anyone anywhere.
The most corrupt and useless quasi govt agency ever formed.
Put it back under the FBI in a small office where it belongs.
Breaking news, westerners back in tge 1900’s were imperialists. More at 11. But seriously, anyone knows this has been the case for a long time. We had a nasty war with Spain which led to an insurgency in the Philippines where US forces did horrible things and slaughtered a lot of civilians in the chaos to bring peace. War is in our blood and it isn’t pretty, but bitching at people in the present over things they had no say in is unfair and childish.
How forthcoming is Mother Jones about eugenicist Margaret Sanger? Or persecutor of homosexuals Fidel Castro? Or mass murderer Che Guevara?
Roosevelt may have been imperialist but his record on race is much better than his contemporaries, especially that of the sainted (by the left) Wilson.
Spoken like a child who has never seen much of the real world outside his video games…
Comment submitted. We need to focus on not only stopping stricter rules from being enacted, but rolling back current regulations.
Suppressors should be delisted from the NFA as a matter of public health. We need to batter the ATF and congress with this message until they are again available over the counter at gun stores.
Yeah, submitted it. But not holding my breath.
The MOOD of the country? lol.
The MOOD of the country is thus: Obama barely won 2012 by less than 5%. Out of all that voted, half don’t like him, and I guarantee that they REALLY don’t like him.
The “mood” of the country is far more dire than this idiot Barrett believes – it is not just about guns. Half of the country (if not more) just plain does not trust the federal government, at all, zilch, zero, nada.
I used to laugh at conspiracy theorists. I used to be an Obama supporter. I used to say that everything would be great when Bush left office, and we got a democrat that respected the people back into office. I used to laugh at people that thought Obama would try to go for more gun bans. I used to laugh at people that thought Obamacare meant the destruction of the health care system and skyrocketing costs.
I was wrong about ALL OF THAT.
I thank Obama for helping me come to that realization.
The ANTIs are still at it it and winning in large urban areas. WE need to keep up the resistance and educate all who we can reach. They (YKWTA) will not stop until the only ones with guns are the criminals and the government (I know its difficult to tell them apart sometimes). Or their body guards.
The truth IMHO is that til someone suffers at the hands of a criminal most never even think of the tools needed to prevent such suffering whether it be training, OPSEC, vigilance or just situational awareness. These are basic tools that inherently help to avoid US from becoming victims.
Vioshi and Sean, why do you include your gifting? The way I read this is that straw purchases are for those who purchase with the intent to resell to another individual who is legal to buy the gun. I didn’t see anything that was posted that would prohibit an outright gift.
The entire Democratic communist Party needs to be disbanded.
AS FAR A THE COUNTRY IS CONCERNED THE TEA PARTY IS THE ONLY WAY OR WE PERISH, AS FAR AS ETERNITY, JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY OR WE PERISH, THAT’S IT. NO OTHER WAY…
I couldn’t find it anywhere in the article, is this gun gas operated or blowback?
Robert/Any TTAGers: would you volunteer to be a “School Marshall” in your child’s school if they took part in the program?
At this point I just think an appropriate way to comment is the following from Monty Python…
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4q6eaLn2mY”
anyone who puts a bargin bin laser like that on a glock deserves prison time.
M&P. I have 4 cans and none of them is as much fun as that damn little .22