What About The Other Guys?

So Fast and Furious has literally exploded all over the national stage this week.  The AG has weasel-wormed his way into a corner concerning documents they may or may not have, the Administration is in full on CYA mode by invoking executive privilege, and the political left is screaming bloody murder about a witch hunt over all of this.

With every report I've read over the last 18 or so months, with very few exceptions, the one (and probably most important) aspect that gets overlooked in all this is the complicity of the FBI in all this.

What has not been reported, except in the blogger community, is that the straw buyers at the heart of Fast and Furious were all convicted felons.  Meaning that legally speaking, they could not walk into any gun shop in this country and buy any gun.  Yet that's exactly what they did.  Walked into gun stores all over the Tuscon/Phoenix area and bought semi-auto rifles by the bushel.

Now, anyone who has bought a gun from a gun store in any state knows that before you are allowed to leave the premises with your new purchase, you have to fill out a little paperwork first.  They ask for all kinds of things, like your name, address; to include city, state, AND county of residence, they ask for your race, your SSN, height, weight, and a whole slew of questions about your status like are you the actual buyer, are you a felon, are you in the country illegally, and if you've ever been convicted of domestic violence or drug related crimes.  Lying on this little form will get you in some hot water.

After you've filled out the form, the guy behind the counter takes that form, and goes and makes a phone call to the National Insta-Check System center, run by the FBI.  One of three things will happen by the end of this call.  First, you're cleared and you continue on with your purchase.  Second, your name pops up and they put a 'hold' on your purchase, which if nothing else comes of it, you can come back in 3 days and pick up your purchase.  Lastly, you get a 'do not proceed' and then the fun starts as you can expect a visit from someone with a badge in the near future.

What happened in F&F is that these guys were all given a 'procede' from the NICS operator.  Now, I don't know about you, but when you've got some guys with rap sheets buying guns from licensed dealers without a worry in the world about getting caught, something smells in Denmark.

I've tried, unsuccessfully, for the last 2 days to get through to some of the radio hosts I listen to every day to bring this up.  Eventually, I will get through.  This needs wider attention.  We need answers.  Agent Terry's family deserves answers.