by Do you remember Project Gunwalker? It was also officially known as Operation Fast and Furious. I tend to prefer David Codrea‘s name for this scandal as it involved walking guns to Mexico in the hopes that they would then show up on crime scenes. It was an effort of the Obama Administration, BATFE, and the Department of Justice to build support for more gun control. Thanks to the efforts of bloggers like David, Dave Workman, and the late Mike Vanderboegh along with mainstream journalists Sharyl Attkisson and William LaJeunesse the veil of secrecy was removed.
One thing that was always a puzzle was how BATFE actually thought they could track the firearms after they left the gun stores. Thanks to Twitter post by gun rights attorney Stephen Stamboulieh we now know.
This is the inside of the stock. pic.twitter.com/Y4Pyo1f0G1
— Stephen (@Stambo2A) August 12, 2022
He also had a picture of these stocks all packaged up.
I have to wonder a) how long the batteries really would have lasted, b) how long would these rifles have taken to reach the cartels once they left the gun store, c) whether the tracking devices would rattle within the stocks, d) if they rattled would the cartels discover the devices, and e) whether the cartels upon discovering the tracking devices would have ended up killing the gun dealers.
Good question. And that ‘technique’ has been used in other places too.
I have read that the idea was taken from DEA, where they let a drug shipment go through to find other gang members. Once the drugs are out in the world, they are used up. This is the same logic as the Colorado politician and 30 round magazines- except from the ATF. (Which should be changed to WFT.)
Diana DeGette April 2, 2013: “I will tell you these are ammunition, they’re bullets, so the people who have those now they’re going to shoot them, so if you ban them in the future, the number of these high capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will have been shot and there won’t be any more available.”
Not to give anyone ideas, but I would modify that stock so that it was then filled with a pour-able polymer that would surround the electronics. Take off the end and you see nothing but solid plastic. Also, on the batteries, I’d think that there’s absolutely no reason to have the GPS report every 15 minutes. I’d do every 24 hours which presumably extends battery life to months instead of weeks.
IIRC, the parts did rattle and were easily discovered. It was one of the many reasons that operation was a cluster.