The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' controversial Fast and Furious program took another hit yesterday as Kenneth E. Melson, the acting director of the program’s Phoenix office, stepped down along with the U.S. Attorney in Arizona, Dennis K. Burke. The two were implicated in an ongoing investigation into the undercover operation that allegedly allowed for thousands of guns to get into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

The United States may be behind the drug-related violence in Mexico, more than we think. According to a new Congressional report released yesterday, more than 70 percent of the guns detained in Mexico the past two years, originated in the U.S. On top of this, the ATF is under fire for reportedly supplying more than a 1,000 illegal firearms to gun traffickers in Mexico, in an operation called "Fast and Furious." They hoped selling the guns to "straw purchasers," would lead them to the crime organizations. Unfortunately, many of these guns were lost track of, and some were even tied to the shooting of an American border patrol officer. 

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) is reportedly writing a bill that would allow congressmembers to carry concealed weapons in Washington D.C. Carrying a concealed weapon is currently illegal in D.C., but is not illegal for members of Congress on Capitol grounds. The news of this bill comes after twenty people were shot in Arizona over this past weekend, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who is still in the hospital recovering. Will more guns mean less senseless acts of violence? 

Yesterday a mostly quiet 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner appeared in court and was charged with attempted assassination, murder, attempted murder, and other federal crimes. Meanwhile the community of Tucson, Ariz., continued to grapple with the aftermath in the media limelight. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D—Ariz.) remains in critical condition; her husband released a statement asking for the concerned to consider donating to The Red Cross. What debates and questions are unfolding in the place where the shooting occurred? 

More and more guns used in drug-related crimes in Mexico are coming from U.S. dealers, according to a year-long investigation by The Washington Post. Many of the weapons are travelling south through the Texas city of Huston. But due to a law passed by Congress in 2003, the identities of the dealers selling the weapons are protected even as weapons they've sold show up at the scenes of violent crimes committed by drug cartels. For more on the story we're joined by a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who co-wrote today's investigative piece, Jame Grimaldi.  

Viktor Bout, the inspiration for the film "Lord of War," was extradited to the U.S. yesterday. He comes to New York, after being held in a Thai jail since 2008, to face trial. He is accused of selling arms – in some cases, to both sides of a given conflict – in war zones in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, and others.

We discuss Bout and his contentious extradition with David Bamford, the BBC's former West Africa correspondent.

It's not like seat-heaters, a fancy sound system, or other car purchase options/ad-ons, but Nation's Trucks in Sanford, Fla. does offer a deal if you purchase a truck: buy one, get an AK-47. Technically, to get your semi-automatic with your vehicle, you have to jump through all the usual hoops of buying the weapon according to state laws. But Nick Ginetta, the general sales manager at the dealership who acknowledges it is in effect a publicity stunt, hopes he'll get a few more customers than usual.

 

Owning a gun is a fundamental right protected by the Second Amendment. But the Appleseed Project believes Americans should not just own guns, they need to be trained how to use them. To that end, the North Carolina-based non-profit organization trains Americans to accurately shoot a man-size target up to 500 yards away. According to its founder, Jack Dailey, it is a skill that is fundamental to protect the liberty of all Americans. The Appleseed Project has already trained 25,000 people and expects to have 7,000 more clients by year's end.

Yesterday the Supreme Court said the Second Amendment's gaurantee of the right to bear arms applies to state and local gun control laws, effectively overturning Chicago’s ban on handguns in a 5-4 decision. The ruling comes after two deadly weekends in Chicago, where over 80 people have been shot and 13 people killed in the city. For decades, Chicago’s homicide rates have soared above other U.S. cities. And gun control advocates worry that the recent Supreme Court case will escalate crime in the city and make Chicago the national epicenter of gun-related violence.

On Tuesday night, George Sodini executed a terrible plan. He opened fire at an aerobics class in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, and shot 12 women, 3 fatally, before turning the gun on himself. This was not a spontaneous attack: he had mapped out his plan in painstaking detail in notes kept in an online diary. Those notes now provide a stark look at the mind of a killer. Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist and adjunct law professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, who studies killers, joins us with a look at the psychological profile of a mass murderer.

Gun owners across America are carrying guns in record numbers. This June, parts of Missouri, North Carolina, Texas and Utah all saw record numbers of applications for concealed weapons, according to a USA Today article. In Clay County, Missouri, the sheriff’s office had to hire two additional staffers to deal with the rush. Clay County is where Don Pind, a firearms instructor at Show Me Shooters Indoor Range, is based; he joins The Takeaway today. We also talk with Kristi Manning, another firearms instructor who teaches at Carter Shooting Supply in Harrison, Tennessee. Manning’s had her class size triple since last November.

An 88-year-old white supremacist with a rifle walked into the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, fatally wounding a security guard. The gunman was identified by law enforcement officials as James W. von Brunn, who embraces conspiracy theories involving Jews, blacks and other minority groups and has waged a personal war with the federal government. Jack Levin, Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Northeastern University joins The Takeaway to talk about the shooting and the trends in hate crimes.

Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School. On April 20, 1999, teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their classmates, killing a teacher and 12 students, and wounding 24 others before turning the guns on themselves. This month also marks the second anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre, where 32 people were fatally shot by a mentally unstable student in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. Commemorating these attacks against the backdrop of another shooting at an immigration center in Binghamton, New York, begs the question: “How bad does it have to get before we take serious steps toward gun control?” Joining us to try to answer this question is Jeff Fagan. Jeff Fagan is a professor of Law and Public Health at Columbia Law School

President Obama arrived in Mexico yesterday just a day after 16 people were killed in a shoot out between suspected traffickers and soldiers near Acapulco. But President Obama didn’t shy away from America’s share of responsibility in violent scenes like that one instead saying, "More than 90% of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our shared border. So we have responsibilities as well. We have to do our part." But who exactly in America holds that responsibility? Gun dealers? ATF agents? Border police? Lawmakers? Two people who deal with those issues every day join The Takeaway to help answer those questions. Jim Pruett is the owner of Pruett’s Guns and Ammo in Houston, Texas and William McMahon, is the Deputy Assistant Director of Field Operations for the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco.

This this week, we’ve been taking a look at Mexico’s drug war and the ripple effect being felt throughout the Southwest United States. Perhaps nowhere has this been felt more keenly than in Arizona where drug-related kidnappings have soared over the past year. Adding to the turmoil is the flow of guns from the U.S. to Mexican gangs. As jury selection continues in the trial of a Phoenix gun-dealer who allegedly sold hundreds of weapons to Mexican cartel members, the debate rages about how to keep American guns out of Mexico. We are joined by someone who is in the front-line of trying to make that happen, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.

Here is Terry Goddard on CNN discussing gun smuggling: