HYPOCRISY, LOCKED AND LOADED

If Congressional Republicans are really intent on getting to the
bottom of an ill-conceived sting operation along the border by the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, they should call
President Felipe Calderon of Mexico as an expert witness.

Mr. Calderon has the data showing that the tens of thousands of
weapons seized from the Mexican drug cartels in the last four years
mostly came from the United States. Three out of five of those guns
were battlefield weapons that were outlawed here until the assault
weapons ban was allowed to lapse in 2004. To help him stop the bloody
mayhem, he is pleading with Washington to re-enact the ban and impose
other needed controls.

That is the last thing Representative Darrell Issa, a California
Republican, wants to hear. He and Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa
Republican, issued a report last week castigating the A.T.F. for an
operation in which federal agents, hoping to track guns to Mexican
cartels, monitored but did not stop gun sales to people suspected of
obtaining weapons for those criminal groups. Two of the American-sold
guns showed up at the scene of a fatal shooting of an American border
patrol agent in Arizona last year.

The Justice Department has ordered an investigation, and it must be
candid in assessing what happened.

Congress needs to be candid about how loophole-ridden laws have
created a huge market for assault weapons, which end up in Mexico. At
a hearing, Mr. Issa insisted, "We're not here to talk about proposed
gun legislation." Federal officials in February sought authority to
require gun dealers to report bulk sales of assault rifles only to
have it blocked by a provision in the Republican budget. A
responsible Congress would re-enact the assault weapons ban, outlaw
uncontrolled gun-show sales and reform regulations that allow corrupt
dealers to stay in business.