and more...

That last is for conspiracy.  It could, as I mentioned before, be sheer incompetence.  These are bureaucrats and Leftists we are talking about.  They can rarely think beyond Stage One of their actions and see through to obvious Unintended Consequences that could emerge from their actions.  They are almost childlike in their ignorance, some bureacrats.  Like they see the problem of poverty and think they can solve it by just giving everyone in the US $1 million cash next Monday, and that would end it forever.  They can't conceive of any new issue resulting from such profligacy occurring on Tuesday...  They might have honestly thought that nothing could go wrong, were certain in their hearts that they were on the side of the angels, and only good results could come from Gunwalker

But incompency or conspiracy there is still known higher ups in the ATF caught with their pants down.  Those not caught with their pants down are under tremendous personal pressure to cover up before these pantsless colleagues point their fingers and say "HE is without trousers too!"

And, for clarification, this is the BAD kind of pantsless, Robb. 

Conspiracy?  Incompetence?  Combo of both?  Combo of both in Olde English shite-tonne quantities? (I prefer the obsolete units.  My truck gets 342,720 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it.)  At any rate, it'll be a bad year or 3 for the ATF and DOJ and others on the wrong side of this Rights issue.