Gunwalking History

Gunwalking was the new deal of the 1930’s a liberal plan to create a welfare state

in America, or a conservative defense of American capitalism. Gunwalking was a

tactic of the Arizona Field Office of the United States Bureau of Alcohol. It ran a

series of sting operations between 2006 and 2011 in the Tucson and Phoenix area.

ATF purposely allowed licensed firearm dealers to sell weapons to illegal straw

buyers, hoping to track the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders and arrest them.

Gunwalking operations were in part a response to longstanding criticism for minor

gun violations and high level gun smuggling figures. ATF engaged in undercover

operations to catch individuals involved in the US Mexican gun trade called

Project Gunrunner.
Gunwalking

operations lacked sufficient operational controls to stop dangerous weapons from

getting to violent criminals.

Gunwalking allows firearms to cross into Mexico and be passed up the cartel

supply chains. US law enforcement agencies were charged with stopping illegal

weapons knowingly mexican criminals. Operations fast and furious was an

expansions of a similar program run during the bush administration three years

earlier. The idea was to target high ranking cartel members by allowing known

straw purchasers to cross the border into mexico and deliver the weapons. It

allowed over 2,000 mostly AK­47’s worth $1.5 million, to walk without

interdiction into Mexico. In February 2011, a letter signed off by Justice

Department Criminal Division claimed the US had never let guns walk. The

operations led to indictments against 40 alleged gun­runners and criminals, but the

guns run through Fast and Furious have been found at Mexicans murder scenes as

well where border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down. ATF primary role

was was to reduce firearm­related violent crime associated with Mexican drug