The reputation of the ATF has taken a beating over the years. Longtime members of the gun culture are well aware of the Bureau’s disastrous actions in the early 1990’s. During the last decade, the ATF seemed to have reformed their strategy somewhat, and their credibility was slowly being rebuilt.
That all changed with the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry late last year.
On December 14th, Terry was gunned down in a firefight near Rio Rico in southern Arizona. The following day, Arizona law enforcement recovered two of the rifles used. They were WASR-10 semiautomatic AK-47 clones, purchased by Jaime Avila at a shop in Glendale the previous January.
Avila had been identified by the ATF the previous January as a participant in a vast conspiracy to transport weapons and narcotics across the border into Mexico. Both Avila and the rifles were in their database as “suspect.” Yet Avila was not arrested or questioned until the death of agent Terry.