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As of June 2011, it appears very likely that many high-ranking administration officials in both the Justice and State Departments not only lied to the American people, but also conspired to increase the number of US firearms being smuggled into Mexico.

You will recall that shortly after President Obama took office in 2009, the administration launched a loud push to reinstate the so-called "assault weapons" ban. This was a coordinated effort between and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder to mislead and deceive the American public. As justification for the ban, they claimed that 90% of the military-style weapons used in the drug cartel wars in Mexico were coming from the USA, from southern border gun shops. Even President Obama mentioned the 90% figure.

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The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today.

"As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons," Holder told reporters.

Holder said that putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border.

"I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum." Holder said at a news conference on the arrest of more than 700 people in a drug enforcement crackdown on Mexican drug cartels operating in the U.S.

Mexican government officials have complained that the availability of sophisticated guns from the United States have emboldened drug traffickers to fight over access routes into the U.S.

"Some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades," the warning said. "Large firefights have taken place in many towns and cities across Mexico, but most recently in northern Mexico, including Tijuana, Chihuahua City and Ciudad Juarez."

At the news conference today, Holder described his discussions with his Mexican counterpart about the recent spike in violence.

"I met yesterday with Attorney General Medina Mora of Mexico, and we discussed the unprecedented levels of violence his country is facing because of their enforcement efforts," he said.

Holder declined to offer any time frame for the reimplementation of the assault weapons ban, however.

"It's something, as I said, that the president talked about during the campaign," he said. "There are obviously a number of things that are -- that have been taking up a substantial amount of his time, and so, I'm not sure exactly what the sequencing will be."

"I think closing the gun show loophole, the banning of cop-killer bullets and I also think that making the assault weapons ban permanent, would be something that would be permitted under Heller," Holder said, referring to the Supreme Court ruling in Washington, D.C. v. Heller, which asserted the Second Amendment as an individual's right to own a weapon. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=6960824&page=1

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Do you think congressional Republicans are investigating Holder and Operation Fast and Furious mostly because they
have real ethical concerns about the way the matter was handled, or mostly because they want to gain political advantage?

June 28-July 1
2012
Real ethical concerns 34%
Gain political advantage 61%
No opinion 5% http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/07/09/rel6d.pdf

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