04 Aug A Policy Review of ‘Operation Fast & Furious’

Robert

A Policy Review of ‘Operation Fast & Furious’

Operation Fast and Furious was a controversial gun-trafficking operation conducted by the ATF that allowed the transfer of nearly 2,000 firearms to Mexican drug cartels. The guns were given to the cartel in hopes of tracing them back to the leaders and arresting more violent gang members. What the ATF did not predict while they were planning this operation is the fact that the guns were going to known violent gang members, and the guns could be used against Americans. The after-action report found a series of misguided strategies, tactics, errors in judgment, and management failures that permeated the ATF. The unintended consequences of the actions by the ATF led to guns being intentionally put into the hands of known criminals that would later be used to kill Americans and a border agent. 

The policy review of the operation begins with identifying the key issues in the case and the root causes of these issues. To begin with, the first and most controversial issue was that federal agents and the U.S. government knowingly transferred a large number of weapons, including assault rifles, semi-automatic handguns, and even .50 caliber sniper rifles to the Mexican cartel. The basis of the operation was to trace the weapons back to known leaders and those more violent gang members. One issue in the operation was how they traced the weapons; ATF only has the weapon serial number to later trace back to the operation. The failure started immediately when federal agents could not trace the weapons in real-time and know their locations before being used. The firearms would later be traced back to the killing of border agent Brian Terry and 11 other violent crimes in the U.S. 

How could an operation like this happen? The lessons learned from the Fast and Furious operation cost a border agent’s life and the fear of over 1,000 undocumented weapons being in the hands of known criminals throughout the U.S. The government can only learn from this failure and move forward in continuing to get these weapons off the street. Preventing a scenario like this from happening in the future is simply by not handing weapons to known criminals. The failed design of the operation has led to a tragic death and unforeseen damages that may come in the future.