market-ticker.org / By Karl Denninger / February 2, 2013
Ok, not really “gives” — the gun was stolen. Nonetheless, they didn’t get it back and there is now one more (very) illegal machine gun on the streets. Not quite what they intended.
A store calling itself Fearless Distributing opened early last year on an out-of-the-way street in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood, offering designer clothes, athletic shoes, jewelry and drug paraphernalia.
Those working behind the counter, however, weren’t interested in selling anything.
They were undercover agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives running a storefront sting aimed at busting criminal operations in the city by purchasing drugs and guns from felons.
But the effort to date has not snared any major dealers or taken down a gang. Instead, it resulted in a string of mistakes and failures, including an ATF military-style machine gun landing on the streets of Milwaukee and the agency having $35,000 in merchandise stolen from its store, a Journal Sentinel investigation has found.
Yes, another one of our “fearless” government sting operations. Except this time they managed to lose an M4 (a real assault weapon, incidentally) and also wound up buying guns purchased at Gander Mountain, as they were paying well-above retail prices.
Then they busted the guy who sold them that gun as a “straw purchaser” even though there was no unlawful intent in buying a gun and then selling it to a legal buyer at a premium.
And yes, the BATFE is a legal buyer.
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