The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives did its best to wipe the blood off of its hands when its acting director, Kenneth Melson, resigned Tuesday.
When you lose track of 2,000 guns resulting in the death of an American citizen, someone has to take the blame.
In a recent operation called "Fast and Furious," the Phoenix division of the ATF, with the help of the U.S. Attorney for Arizona (who is also resigning), attempted to track the flow of guns on the Southwest border by allowing weapons to be purchased at border gun shops.
Soon, the ATF found they were missing about 2,000 guns, which ended up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels.
The operation was brought to light when U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's body was found near Rio Rico, Ariz. Terry was murdered by members of a cartel who had stumbled upon, if you will, two assault rifles that were part of Operation Fast and Furious.
This tragic scenario was just another horrible result of the U.S. position toward Mexican drug violence.
Drug cartels operate exclusively underground with the protection of many Mexican government officials who have been paid off with bribes. Did our government really think they would be able to track the flow of our weapons in a corrupt Mexican government?
The government spends billions of dollars on the war on drugs, which has become an international conflict, and we have seen few positive results.
According to the Cato Institute, 131 U.S. citizens were killed in border cities between 2005 and 2008 due to the violent drug trade. Around 6,290 people were killed in Mexico in 2008, according to USA Today.
Yet we keep spending billions on the drug war.
In a struggling country like Mexico, the extravagant life of a drug kingpin is very tempting to many, even some government officials. What we are left with is a system of corruption, bribery and increased crime.
Instead of putting guns in the hands of violent international criminals, the government should be reevaluating its ineffective War on Drugs.
Perhaps they could learn a lesson from the alcohol prohibition era instead of using scare tactics and increased invasions of privacy to monitor the flow of illegal substances in and around the United States.
They could also find smarter ways to decrease the power of drug cartels by removing the perverse incentives that prohibition creates.
The implications of this prescription might be alarming to some, but surely there must be a better way to prevent this violence.
Replacing the head of the ATF or the Drug Enforcement Agency or even the Department of Justice will not do any good until the government reevaluates its entire policy surrounding this issue.
