Senate Judiciary Committee Oversight Hearing with Attorney General Eric Holder, Nov. 8, 2011
Long Gun Reporting Requirement
Attorney General Holder: "[E]arlier this year, the House of Representatives actually voted to keep law enforcement in the dark when individuals purchase semiautomatic rifles and shotguns in southwest border gun shops. Providing law enforcement with the tools to detect and to disrupt illegal gun trafficking is entirely consistent with the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens."
In Operation Fast and Furious, law enforcement was not in the dark when individuals purchased these weapons. Rather, they were receiving real-time?and sometimes advance?notice from cooperating gun dealers when suspected straw buyers would purchase pistols or long guns. The information for both pistols and long guns was placed onto what is called a "4473" form, which gun dealers then faxed to the ATF. However, rather than using that information to question the suspected straw buyers and eventually make arrests, ATF chose to allow them to continue to traffic guns. There were about 93 multiple handgun purchases by Fast and Furious suspects averaging nearly five handguns per purchase. These were already required to be reported under existing regulations. There were about 148 multiple long gun purchases by Fast and Furious suspects, averaging over 9 long guns per purchase. Most of the purchases were made by just a few buyers. Cooperating dealers reported them even without a regulatory requirement because they were suspicious and involved known straw buyers.
For instance, within three days of Jaime Avila's January 16, 2010, purchase of the two weapons that were later recovered at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's murder, ATF had entered the purchase into their Suspect Gun Database. Beginning 7 weeks prior to that date, ATF had already entered 13 weapons purchased by Avila into their Suspect Gun Database, including 8 long guns. The problem was not a lack of information. It was a failure to act on the information the government already had.
Supporting Documents of the FACTS
