(GunReports.com) — U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and former state Attorney General, today responded to reports that Kenneth E. Melson, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has been reassigned to a new position within the Justice Department.
On Aug. 30, BATF Acting Director Melson announced that he is leaving the agency to become Senior Advisor to the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy (OLP), where he will specialize in forensic science policy issues at the Department of Justice.
“Instead of reassigning those responsible for ‘Fast and Furious’ within the Department of Justice, Attorney General Holder should ask for their resignations and come clean on all alleged gun-walking operations, including a detailed response to allegations of a Texas-based scheme,” Cornyn said.
Earlier this month, Sen. Cornyn sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder demanding answers following recent press reports of alleged Texas-based “gun-walking” programs similar to the “Fast and Furious” operation currently being investigated by Congressional lawmakers. To date, Attorney General Holder has refused to respond.
The gunwalking scandal centered on an ATF program that allowed thousands of high-caliber weapons to knowingly be sold to so-called “straw buyers” who are suspected as middlemen for criminals. Those weapons, according to the Department of Justice, have been tied to at least 12 violent crimes in the United States, and an unknown number of violent crimes in Mexico.
Dubbed operation “Fast and Furious,” the plan was designed to gather intelligence on gun sales, but ATF agents have told members of Congress that they were routinely ordered to back off and allow weapons to “walk” when sold.
Contact Sen. Cornyn at www.Cornyn.Senate.gov or on his Facebook page or via Twitter.
