The ongoing ATF scandal claims the life of yet another Federal officer

ICE agent Jaime Zapata, the unarmed officer ambushed and killed in Mexico while on duty in that country last month, was shot with a firearm purchased in Texas and allegedly smuggled across the border by three straw-purchasers whom the incompetent "Gunwalkers" at the BATFE apparently knew all about but curiously didn't bother to arrest until the murder weapon was directly connected to that agency's bungling:

"Robert Champion, special agent in charge of the local Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, acknowledged this week, though, that his agents did delay arresting three Lancaster men for three months after confiscating a load of guns the men intended to smuggle across the border to the Zeta cartel in November.

It was only after a gun used to kill Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico last month was traced back to North Texas that local ATF agents moved quickly to arrest the Lancaster trio."

Law-abiding citizens routinely get harassed and threatened with arrest and imprisonment by the ATF because their rifle inconveniently malfunctions or they put "Y" or "N" instead of "Yes" and "No" on the paperwork required to legally transfer a firearm, but gunrunners caught red-handed get to freely roam the streets until their actions get a Federal law-enforcement officer killed?  Yep, that sure sounds like a "professional" way to run an agency under the auspices of the "Justice" Department.

Zapata sadly joins Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry as dedicated, professional officers who were murdered with firearms that ATF bosses allegedly permitted to cross the border without interdiction, apparently as part of some kind of insane PR attempt to artificially inflate the numbers of U.S.-sold weapons recovered in Mexico.  These numbers would then presumably be used to bolster ATF's political argument for imposing greater gun control in America.

The brass at ATF who knew about and sanctioned "Project Gunwalker" should be sitting in a jail cell right now instead of being ensconced at their comfy desks in Washington, no doubt frantically wondering how to get themselves out of this mess that's falling around their heads as we speak.

For those interested in following this scandal, all of the latest breaking info on this inexcusable dereliction of duty (and outright lawbreaking) by the original "jack-booted thugs" can be found here and here.