Tucson Shooting Survivors Want Stricter Gun Laws

By Adrianna McGinley

Survivors and family members of shooting victims, including those of the January Tucson shooting that nearly killed Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), joined legislators Tuesday to support bipartisan legislation aimed at tightening national gun laws.

The Fix Gun Checks Act, introduced by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), would require background checks for all gun purchases and would penalize states that fail to enter records into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has committed to investigating the ATF’s failed “Operation Fast and Furious” program, agreed that legislation to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals is necessary. He added, however, that Second Amendment rights must be protected for law-abiding citizens, specifically veterans that he says were denied their right to bear arms under the NICS Improvement Act.

“While the horrific events in Tucson are still fresh in our memories, as we discuss new gun control laws, we also need to move forward on bipartisan legislation such as the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act,” Grassley said.

Col. Bill Badger, who survived a bullet wound from the Tucson shooting, and Patricia Maisch, who prevented the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, from reloading, voiced support for the measure.

“Tucson is yet another extremely tragic example of what is at stake each and every time a gun falls or is placed in the wrong hands,” Maisch said. “Changing the past is impossible…but it would be a pitiful shame if no action were taken to change the future. You can take action to improve our broken gun background check system, and I truly believe with all my soul that your actions can save lives.”

Legislators and witnesses emphasized that the proposal is not meant to infringe on people’s rights or take away their guns, but rather to ensure that guns stay out of the hands of dangerous individuals, like Loughner, a diagnosed schizophrenic.

“I believe there’s a right to bear arms, but I also believe it’s not absolute,” Schumer said. “Just as we have limits on the First Amendment…there are reasonable limits on the Second Amendment. I don’t believe it should be seen through a pinhole…but I also believe that limits are very reasonable and we’re talking among the most reasonable limits here.”

House Republicans Demand Holder's Resignation

By Andrea Salazar

Nearly a dozen Republican House members joined together Tuesday to call for Eric Holder to resign from his position as Attorney General, holding him responsible for “Operation Fast and Furious” and the death of a Border Patrol Agent.

Under “Fast and Furious,” the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allegedly allowed guns across the border and into the hands of Mexican cartels. Two of those guns were found last December where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered.

“‘Fast and Furious’ endangered the lives of every citizen in this country, especially those of us in the Southwest,” Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) said at a news conference. “Further, this program…severely compromised the safety of our law enforcement folks in every Main Street, every town, county and state by arming criminals and foreign nationals.”

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) called for President Obama to join in asking Holder to resign, saying “if the president does not agree with that stance, then perhaps the president of the United States of America is also complicit in this horrible, tragic event.”

“Leaders take responsibility,” West said. “They very rarely take credit. It’s time for Attorney General Holder to take responsibility for the failures that are coming out of the Department of Justice.”

Reps. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas), Diane Black (R-Tenn.), Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) and Anne Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) echoed their colleagues demand.

Holder Denies Guilt Over "Fast And Furious"

By Adrianna McGinley

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder today condemned federal officials for authorizing controversial “gun-walking” tactics under Operation Fast and Furious, but told lawmakers he is committed to investigating and holding accountable those responsible.

“I think that I acted in a responsible way by ordering the Inspector General investigation,” Holder said to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “On the basis of that report and any other information that is brought to my attention, those people who did make mistakes will be held accountable.”

Holder called the Operation “flawed in its concept and flawed in its execution.” He said that its impacts will be felt for years to come since many guns that ATF agents allowed to be purchased and carried across the U.S. border into Mexico are still unaccounted for and some continue to appear at cartel crime scenes.

“This should never have happened, and it must never happen again,” Holder said.

While admitting that there were grave mistakes made during Fast and Furious, Holder said it was in fact “a flawed response to, not the cause of” illegal gun flow into Mexico and the violence that results.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked Holder if he has or would like to apologize to the family of deceased Border Patrol Agent Brian Terr, who was murdered last December. Weapons discovered at the crime scene were traced back to Fast and Furious.

“I certainly regret what happened,” Holder replied. “It is not fair, however, to assume that the mistakes that happened in Fast and Furious directly led to the death of Agent Terry.”

Holder pledged that the Department of Justice is committed to punishing Mexican drug cartel members who have murdered American citizens. He also said that his agency is working with the Mexican government to curtail the violence caused by the cartels. To that point, Holder expressed concern that Republicans in Congress have proposed cutting DOJ’s budget for the coming fiscal year.

“Those proposed cuts are simply unacceptable and place this nation at risk…We are enjoying historically low crime rates…[DOJ cuts] put at risk the possibility that these historically low rates will not remain there forever.”

Holder suggested Congress take into consideration testimony from whistleblower agents who have called on Congress to support the fight against illegal weapons being trafficked into Mexico.

Officials Under Fire In Hunt For 'Fast And Furious' Blame

By Adrianna McGinley

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism questioned federal officials today about Operation “Fast and Furious,” and what measures should be enacted to prevent guns from “walking” into the hands of criminals in the future.

The program was carried out last year by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and involved allowing guns to be obtained in the U.S. by straw-purchasers who then sold them across the southern border to members of dangerous drug cartels. ATF agents were supposed to track the weapons to find out where they ended up, but several hundred went missing.

The mishaps of “Fast and Furious” were eventually exposed by a whistleblower at ATF after it was discovered that one of the guns that was allowed to “walk” into Mexico was used to kill a Border Patrol agent in Arizona last December.

At today’s hearing, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) hounded Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ Criminal Division, about Breuer’s self proclaimed “mistake” of not informing top officials of the connection between Fast and Furious and the 2006-07 gun-walking operation Wide Receiver, which was commissioned under the Bush administration.

“I regret the fact that in April of 2010 I did not [inform Attorney General Holder or Deputy Attorney General Cole],” Breuer said. “At the time I thought that dealing with the leadership of ATF was sufficient and reasonable.”

He criticized the fact that ATF “failed” to stop weapons that they had “both the ability to interdict and the legal authority to interdict.”

Grassley, who serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, has co-led Congress’ investigation into the program along with House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) criticized the “hunt for blame” surrounding Fast and Furious and called for a focus on the root problem: domestic gun laws that allow “anybody [to] walk in and buy anything”.

“I’ve been here 18 years, I’ve watched the BATF get beaten up at every turn of the road and candidly, it’s just not right,” Feinstein said. “We have more guns in this country than we have people and somebody’s got to come to the realization that when these guns go to the wrong places scores of deaths result.”

Breuer said that of the approximately 94,000 weapons recovered in the last five years in Mexico, 64,000 of them have been traced to the U.S. He added that the number one tool to stop gun trafficking would be the authority to forfeit the weapons of dealers who knowingly sell to criminals.

“It is clear that we need more tools to get those people who are buying the guns and illegally transporting them to Mexico,” Breuer said. “We cannot permit the guns to go knowingly and we cannot permit the guns to go unknowingly. We need to stop the flow.”

Breuer emphasized that few law-abiding citizens are looking to buy semi-automatic weapons, and the lack of a requirement to notify ATF when such weapons are bought is a large part of the problem.

“Information is the tool we need to challenge and defeat organized crime. We are not even permitted to have ATF receive reports about multiple sales of long-guns, of any kind of semi-automatic weapon or the like.”

Other officials from the Departments of Justice (DOJ), Homeland Security (DHS) and Treasury also appeared before the subcommittee.

Sen. Grassley: Obama Going Behind Congress' Back On Immigration

By Adrianna McGinley

Ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), argued Tuesday that the White House is improperly operating behind lawmakers’ backs on immigration policy.

The senator specifically questioned the motive and intention of a memo released by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in August calling to establish a working group to review the cases of hundreds of thousands of undocumented individuals.

“The Obama policies may be an impermissible intrusion on Congress’s plenary authority over immigration law,” Grassley said during an appearance before Judicial Watch, a “conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, [that] promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law”.

In September, Grassley and 18 other senators sent a letter to Obama requesting the new policies be rescinded and that Napolitano be made available to questioning by Congress. She is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“It will be our chance to conduct oversight over her department and their policies,” Grassley said. “You can be sure that prosecutorial discretion will come up. I also plan again, to express my concern with how this administration is enforcing the laws, and whether they are trying to find creative ways to keep as many illegal people in this country.”

Grassley also expressed concern over a memo released last summer giving “prosecutorial discretion” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and “gun walking” that took place under Operation Fast and Furious.

Under the controversial Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) operation, weapons were allowed to “walk” in to the hands of Mexican drug cartels. Two of these weapons were found at the scene of the December murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

“My motivation is to make sure nothing like this ever happens again, and get the truth for the Terry family as well as an untold number of Mexican citizens who may be victims as well,” Grassley said.