Today marks the one year anniversary of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's death following a shootout with cross-border bandits in Rio Rico, AZ.
While law enforcement is an inherently dangerous profession in and of itself, perhaps the most infuriating aspect of Terry's murder was in how preventable it could've been.
The facts of the case are that during the overnight hours of December 14 and 15, armed Mexican nationals illegally crossed into the USA via a remote section of the US/Mexico border, reportedly to ambush and rip off other illegal border crossers and drug mules- although more recent reports indicate that the raiders were also looking for a confrontation with the Border Patrol as well.
Although records concerning Agent Terry's murder have been sealed, it has been established that two AK-variant guns recovered from the crime scene were from the ATF's 'Operation Fast & Furious' in which over the objections of gun stores and field-level ATF agents, guns purchased by straw buyers were allowed to 'walk'- to cross the US/Mexican border without further survaillance or notifying Mexican law enforcement where they ended up in the hands of cartels and other criminal gangs.
Not surprisingly, the family of Agent Terry is livid and wants to see heads roll at the Justice Department over what's being called a 'botched gunrunning sting'. There has been a number of Congressional hearings in the aftermath of Fast & Furious, but testimony from senior Justice Department officials has often been evasive and contradictory. Moreover, Attorney General Holder has complained that the hearings are politically motivated. During the most recent House Oversight hearings, Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D; TX-18) gushed praise for Holder, called for stricter gun control laws obstensibly to protect law enforcement and couldn't even remember Agent Terry's name while reading her boilerplate 'condolances' off of a rambling script.
Earlier this week, the Brian Terry Memorial Act passed unanimously in the House of Representatives and is awaiting action from the Senate. The act would rename the Border Crossing station in Bisbee, AZ in honor of Agent Terry.
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