Feds Hunt for Guns, One House at a Time

Posted July 1st, 2009 by Michael Nystrom

In front of a run-down shack in north Houston, federal agents step from a government sedan into 102-degree heat and face a critical question: How can the woman living here buy four high-end handguns in one day?

The house is worth $35,000. A screen dangles by a wall-unit air conditioner. Porch swing slats are smashed, the smattering of grass is flattened by cars and burned yellow by sun.

“I’ll do the talking on this one,” agent Tim Sloan, of South Carolina, told partner Brian Tumiel, of New York.

Success on the front lines of a government blitz on gunrunners supplying Mexican drug cartels with Houston weaponry hinges on logging heavy miles and knocking on countless doors. Dozens of agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — sent here from around the country — are needed to follow what ATF acting director Kenneth Melson described as a “massive number of investigative leads.”

All told, Mexican officials in 2008 asked federal agents to trace the origins of more than 7,500 firearms recovered at crime scenes in Mexico. Most of them were traced back to Texas, California and Arizona.

Among other things, the agents are combing neighborhoods and asking people about suspicious purchases as well as seeking explanations as to how their guns ended up used in murders, kidnappings and other crimes in Mexico.

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Just the fact that the house is

On July 1st, 2009 TomJefferson says:

a $35,000 shack is a red flag in the story for starters...if they were really selling guns in any real quantities, they'd be livin larger than that! Nice try, Houston...(I call bullsh*t!)

If anything, they're buying the guns to protect themselves from the drug cartels, or FEMA *rescue* attempts...

Complete indoctrination propaganda piece...

To Michael's point: they are perhaps trying to pin crimes on innocent gun owners via their guns?

I'm waiting to see if anyone gets the bigger point here

On July 1st, 2009 MikeLawson says:

So far I'm not encouraged.

I get it.. we must surrender

On July 1st, 2009 bad_karma says:

I get it.. we must surrender our gun rights for little mexico and the fight against drugs..

I am

On July 1st, 2009 SSgT_AF says:

Confused? I read it but can't draw anything from it. Other than using illegals as an excuse to infringe on more rights.

this is absolute BS.... the

On July 1st, 2009 bad_karma says:

this is absolute BS.... the drug cartels have so much money they buy full automatic weaponry from any gun runner in the world.. these weapons are not coming from the US. TheY like to leave out all the rpg's and hand grenades they come across.. I gaurantee you those are not coming from Houston.. what about all the full automatic rifles, ak47's etc... the drug cartels can buy what ever they want from who ever they want.. this is just another attack on the second ammendment.. nothing but BULL CHIT!

This shows just how stupid and gullible the masses are...

On July 1st, 2009 LastAmericanStanding says:

To think that Mexican drug cartels.... wielding huge amounts of money... are buying guns legally in the u.s. and smuggling them across the border is ludicrous.

You would have to be a full blown moron to believe a story like this...

I may not know the truth, but I know when I'm being lied to...

This is BS. Texas DOES NOT

On July 1st, 2009 HotRodHawkins says:

This is BS. Texas DOES NOT keep records of which guns you purchase.

Specific information about the firearm and linking it to the purchaser IS PROHIBITED from being recorded by the Feds or the State of Texas. This IS NOT like CSI New York (or whatever) where they "know" the exact make model and owner of a gun found in a dumpster

There is ONLY a record of a criminal background check and whether the firearm was a pistol or rifle. The outcome of the transaction is not even supposed to be recorded (did the customer go ahead and purchase? Was the purchase canceled?)

So, if they DO have lists, as we have suspected all along, the FEDS are breaking the law once again.

OR, this is a BS story needed to justify illegal searches and seizures, because everybody knows that "Fully Automatic Weapons are available on every street corner in Texas, California, and Arizona." Yea, right, Full-Auto weapons (like the ones recovered in Mexico) requiring a class 3 tax stamp are a pain in the ass to purchase. They would have to be Black Market purchased, and then the FEDS would have no record of the transaction to "trace the guns back to Texas"....

If anybody is dumb enough to believe Houston....

On July 1st, 2009 SimpleSam says:

Is running guns and drugs for the mexican cartels, they deserve to be slapped down & dragged to the dungeon.

This reporter is a stenographer, I hope she slams the door in their faces & tells her friends to join in. Nobody's running guns except the government, time to pack it up hilly!!!