Weapons Traffic: 'Fast and Furious' inquiry broadens

'Fast and Furious' inquiry broadens - Seung Min Kim - POLITICO.com: "Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the leading Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released a report early Thursday titled “Outgunned,” that details how Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents say gun laws need to be tightened for them to fight organized crime along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The same law enforcement agents who were invited by Chairman Issa to testify about ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious have also warned the committee that they are incredibly outgunned in the fight against international drug cartels that are trafficking tens of thousands of military-grade assault weapons from the United States to Mexico,” Cummings said in a statement.

At a previous hearing, Cummings pushed for a look at how American gun laws could be fueling the violence.

“No legitimate examination of this issue will be complete without analyzing our nation’s gun laws, which allow tens of thousands of assault weapons to flood into Mexico from the United States every year, including fifty caliber sniper rifles, multiple AK variants, and scores of others,” Cummings said at the hearing.