Which is it, Gunwalker?

So this whole Gunwalker thing...  There are 2 explanation at the heart of this onion.

Government officials conspired to release firearms to criminal south of the border and hoped for mayhem from said release.  The death and suffering caused by these ATF supplied guns would lead to a shift in public opinion towards further gun regulations and provide prolitical cover to instigate further restriction to accelerate incremental moves toward a complete gun ban. 

Information indicates that if this is a conspiracy, it was known at the highest levels.  High as the ATF director and probably the Attorney General and DHS Secretary.  Possibly the president.

The other explanation is sheer incompetency.  Someone thought releasing guns would help law enforcement track them to criminal syndicates.  Someone weighed the risks and dismissed them.  Someone thought the situation could be contained, even cross border into foreign jurisdictions, and not spin wildly out of control.  Even if mayhem was caused the resulting capture of badguys would lead to much much less mayhem in the near future and for a time after that.  Someone thought that of COURSE the big source of firearms in Mexican Cartels was US civilian gunstores.  That's the culture they live in, the "civvy guns are bad" culture and they can't even conceive of any net good firearms outside of police hands. 

Information indicates that if this is incompetency, it was instigated at the highest levels.  High as the ATF director and probably the Attorney General and DHS Secretary.  Possibly the president.

If it's conspiracy, the deaths caused by Gunwalker are a cause of this conspiracy, and a felony.  People belong in prison.  If it's incompetency, well, people still died.  Then the parties involved are only guilty of manslaughter.  Much shorter jail term for that.  But still accountable. 

Based on past performance, I am thinking that this whole thing is just sheer incompetence.  No evil conspiracy or cat's paw, pulling the strings.  See what happens when you give bureaucrats and politicians too much power?  People get hurt, on top of the fiscal malfeasance.  Give them less power and fewer get hurt, and less tax money, YOUR money, gets skimmed in graft and lost to waste.  And they take less of your money in the first place.

We have Peter Principled this political class, both parties, way above their collective abilities.  There is no harm or disgrace in demoting them to something they can handle.  Everyone will be happier in the long run.

[There is some political mumbo jumbo that will bite them in the ass.  The whole 90% of crime guns come from US gunstores lie, for instance. (of 300,000 guns, 11,000 were submitted to US tracing authorities, of them 6000 thousand were actually traceable, of that 5000 had a US origin)  This lie makes it look like a setup to work the political battleground ahead of Gunwalker's results.  But then Gunwalker blew up in their faces and it all looks like a conspiracy when it was really probably incompetence.]