Welcome to the Discussion Forum!

Each week, you will be asked to respond to the prompt or prompts in the discussion forum. Your initial post should be 75-150 words in length, and is due on Sunday. By Tuesday, you should respond to two additional posts from your peers. If you have not done so lately, please review the Rules of Discussion. 

Using information from:

• Chapter 1 – (Analyzing Ethical Issues and Policies) – page 15
• Chapter 2 – relate the issue in the article to one of the major ethical systems (listed at the bottom of page 47)

Read the articles noted in the links below and apply the concepts noted above to help you with this discussion.

Links:

Explain the ethical issue outlined below regarding the Department of Justices decision to implement the project – Fast and Furious.

Possible questions to address:

• Was this program necessary to achieve the results the DOJ believes it would?
• Was there another way the DOJ could have reduced gun trafficking across the border besides allowing people to purchase firearms illegally?

In 2009, the Department of Justice (DOJ) allowed the illegal purchases of firearms known as straw purchases (guns purchased by an individual who can legally own a firearm for someone else who cannot buy a firearm legally) in Project Gunrunner otherwise known as Fast and Furious (CNN, 2019, para. 7).  The DOJ justifies their decision by stating that this was an effective way to track and arrest individuals who were trafficking firearms between the United States and Mexico (U.S. Department of Justice, 2009).  In 2010, when U.S. Border Agent, Brian Terry was killed with one of the illegally purchased weapons, the DOJ justified their tactics by stating that gunrunner programs like the Fast and Furious reduce gun trafficking across the border (CNN, 2019).

Below are the citations for the above noted articles.

References

CNN. (2019, February 28). Operation fast and furious fast facts. Retrieved from cnn.com: https://www.cnn.com/2013/08/27/world/americas/operation-fast-and-furious-fast-facts/index.html

The United States Department of Justice. (2009, April 2). Fact sheet: Department of Justice efforts to combat Mexican drug cartels. Retrieved from justice.gov: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/fact-sheet-department-justice-efforts-combat-mexican-drug-cartels

Follow up with your classmates by sharing a possible ethical system that may be applicable instead of the one they selected. 

View your discussion rubric.