by The family of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry is suing the ATF for $25 million in Arizona state court for their role in his death. They are also suing Lone Wolf Trading Company in a second suit.
According to the claim, agent Terry was patrolling near Rio Rico on the night of Dec. 14, 2010 when he was shot and killed by criminals yielding assault rifles. Those rifles were traced to a straw purchaser for Mexican drug cartels in Arizona who the ATF knew about and allowed to deliver the weapons to the cartels.
“The murder of agent Terry and other acts of violent crimes were the natural consequence of ATF’s decision to let dangerous weapons designed to kill human beings ‘walk’ into the hands of violent drug-trafficking gangs,” the complaint reads.
The claim also contends that the circumstances that led to Terry’s murder were not isolated events, but rather there were thousands of guns purchased under occasional ATF surveillance with no way of tracking all the weapons from straw purchases.
The suit against Lone Wolf Trading Company is asking for unspecified damages. It says the company should have recognized just how risky these sales were but ignored it. Moreover, it says they knew that the ATF was letting the guns walk and should refused to participate in future straw purchases.
Bob Owens suggests that pulling Lone Wolf into the equation was a smart move.
By pulling Lone Wolf into the equation, the family’s attorney’s are creating a situation where Lone Wolf is going to be forced to give up what they know and pressure the ATF into providing documents for their defense as well.
I think he may be on to something there.
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You know, at first I didn't agree with it, but when you made the point at the end I was with you.
Yep.
Haven't read Bob's take on it yet but when I read that I thought it was a good move.
Lone Wolf is being accused of breaking the law by knowingly allowing straw purchases, which would be a slam dunk win in a "preponderence of the evidence" civil case decision as, in fact, they did.
Their only defense is to document ATF's involvement which will result in ATF being hit with subpoenas from the Terry's directly and from Lone Wolf.
That forces ATF to double down on the cover-up
would lone wolf even be protected by the "protection of lawful commerce in arms act" since lone wolf knew they were selling arms to straw purchasers (which is unlawful). Even though the ATF says it's OK, doesn't change the fact that the arms were going to an illegal straw purchaser. That would be like a cop letting you off with a verbal warning when you were speeding….you were still speeding though.
Also,
The suit will make others in the firearms industry think twice about working with the ATF on anything like this again. Which is a good thing IMO.