From Anthony Martin writing for the Examiner:

A retired agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has revealed all of the clandestine facts concerning the agency’s operation known as Fast and Furious, the illegal scheme that placed thousands of firearms in the hands of Mexican drug criminals.

On Friday, GunMag, a publication of the Second Amendment Foundation, reported that the former agent revealed all to one its national correspondents in an informal talk at the firing range. The agent revealed that Fast and Furious was only one of a three pronged approach by the ATF to place draconian restrictions on the gun rights of American citizens.

The first line of attack was to discredit U.S. firearms dealers by blaming them for the fact that nearly 2,000 guns were somehow walked across the border where they wound up being used by Mexican drug cartels to commit crimes, including the murders of over 300 Mexican citizens and at least two U.S. federal agents. The plan was to withhold from the public vital information that ATF agents set up straw purchasers to buy the guns illegally and that the ATF had already solicited the “help” of the firearms dealers, insuring their cooperation by telling them they would be part of a federal sting operation.

But the scheme never had a chance due to the fact that a few conscientious ATF agents blew the whistle on the illegal activity, placing the agency under heavy fire from Republicans in Congress. Had the agents not come forward with the truth, then the scheme may have worked, and the public would have been treated to a nightly barrage of news reports describing in great detail how gun stores along the southern border are rife with corruption.

The second part of the ATF’s systematic effort to hamstring the gun rights of Americans was to place undue pressure on gun and ammo manufacturers and importers to the extent that they would be driven out of business. This they would do by arbitrarily applying rules and regulations in a manner in which they had never been used in the past.

Just a quick editorial note to point out that this is not a new tactic with the Obama administration. The nomination of Andrew Traver to head the ATF, considering his work with the Joyce Foundation, points to a very restrictive regulatory scheme envisioned by this administration if the nomination have been approved.  Furthermore, Obama’s nomination of Caitlin J. Halligan to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals argues for the same sort of vision.  Halligan, in her tenure as Solicitor General of the State of New York, attempted to hold firearms manufacturers and retailers responsible for crimes committed with guns.  In 2006, Halligan also filed a brief arguing that handgun manufacturers were guilty of creating a public nuisance.  This tactic is still alive and kicking in spite of federal law prohibiting such suits.

Apparently this is precisely what the ATF was doing earlier in the year when numerous reports were filed from the state of Alaska indicating that gun stores had been contacted by ATF agents instructing them to turn over their “bound books” containing the names and information of customers who had made purchases in their stores.

Agents told one dealer that the book was the property of the ATF and that the agency had the right to take it.

But the law states otherwise. The bound book is required by law to be kept on the premises of each gun dealer, available for inspection by the ATF but never removed unless the dealer goes out of business.

The ATF is further prohibited by law from accessing all of the information in the book. Only that information that is pertinent to an ongoing investigation is to be made available to agents.

Due to the public outcry against the ATF in this case, local Alaska congressmen and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, contacted the agency and requested an official review of the law and the practices of agents operating out of the Seattle Field Division, which has oversight of Alaska.

The result was that the ATF received a slap on the wrist.

A third prong of the overarching scheme of the ATF to mount a direct assault on the gun rights of citizens was a new concerted effort at what was described as “examination and testing.” Agents would place seized firearms under strict and thorough testing to determine whether or not they were in compliance with all federal laws. And if even a minor infraction were discovered, the gun owner in question would be arrested and prosecuted for possessing a firearm that did not meet federal standards.

All of this surpasses believability; it dovetails with reality as we currently know it.  Message to Darrell Issa.  Faster please!