Looks like the Mexican police found a Barrett M99 in .50BMG El Chapo’s hideout, which was linked to the Fast and Furious program where ATF allowed guns to be sold to Mexican drug cartels. That scandal is the gift that just keeps on giving, isn’t it? Except it’s a gift no one wanted. I’ll forgive the nonsense of a bolt-action .50BMG being used for taking down helicopters (I suppose with a lucky shot, you could) since this is from a British paper.
Federal officials said they are investigating how many of the weapons found at El Chapo’s hideout originated in the U.S., and where and how they were purchased.
Any bets on whether they’ll find more F&F guns? It sadly does not surprise me that no one has gone to jail for this.
The .50 is probably a danger to a hovering helicopter but not much beyond that. An API round into the cockpit and I guarantee that helicopter won’t fly too well.
But we need more laws to prevent this… because straw purchasing being illegal, dealing without a license being illegal, and ITAR violations are not nearly enough ;-).
I bet a ton of the guns will be US traced via acquisition from the Mexican Army/ Federal Police.
I think the ONLY reason why ANY Cartel soldiers had F&F guns was because they were free gifts.
Anybody by choice would choose to buy or steal full-auto guns from the .gov.
I don’t think we should be so quick to excuses British gun stupidity. They said it requires a bipod because of its “extreme recoil”, but that it’s also designed to be shot up into the air to take down flying helicopters.
Fox news is also reporting the helicopter line on their website.
The article I read said that theoretically Guzman had ordered people to shoot down helicopters with them, from hilltops.
Doesn’t mean it’d work, but the VPC “zomg you can shoot down an airliner!!!” line might have had some legs to the Narcos.
Worse — on Fox Special Report, the video with the story showed an M2 .50 cal. machinegun being fired.
Fox News, that hot bed of right wing propaganda.
What’s wrong with that? The anti’s don’t know the difference. If they see a machine gun, and as long as it’s made clear that Obama’s administration provided that weapon to drug dealers and broke multiple laws in the process, then it’s a win / win for us. His supporters may eventually question his actions and some turds will eventually stick to his so called legacy.
What’s wrong with that is that the way we win is by being scrupulously honest and not trying to confuse the issue. That’s a tactic for the other side. When we point out that they’ve been intentionally misleading, we win, but only if the other side can’t point to us doing the same thing.
That’s what is wrong with it.
First, do not make the mistake in assuming that the FOX News organization is pro-gun. They are NOT.
On top of that, it has been my experience that Americans, in general, tend to filter out anything that looks like “government conspiracy theory”. Sure, WE know about F&F, but to a much larger percentage of Americans it will look like more of the political hyperbole that they are already tired of and desensitized to. So it will go in one ear and right out the other.
Frankly, people who don’t know anything about guns (or F&F) are just as likely to think the video of the M2 is of the actual rifle in question. I have already heard some low-information types asking “why can people legally buy rifles specifically designed to shoot down helicopters?”
F&F was an ingenious piece of work. Sure it was busted, but notice, nobody has been charged with anything, and now it works as a good excuse to get pictures of scary looking rifles into the news and tell people “see, the drug cartels have this rifle because Americans”. It’s almost like that is what they intended.