Will Mexico's drug war lead to tighter gun control laws in U.S.?

Hunters, target shooters and general gun owners: Try to imagine living in a country that has only one gun store. It's run by the army,  and buyers, who often wait months before receiving a permit, have to prove first that they make an honest living.

They must also undergo a psychological exam. The number of guns one can own is restricted. Ammunition sales are limited. Areas where guns can be carried are severely restricted. Selling guns to another person requires gobs of red tape.

That country is Mexico.

The Arizona Republic today ran a story on Mexico's gun-control laws, among the strictest in the world, and quoted a Mexican gun shopper as saying, "If the United States had a system like ours, we wouldn't have so many problems here in Mexico."

Agustin Villordo was referring, of course, to the heavily armed drug cartels, whose weapons come primarily from the U.S. And his statement surely will cause U.S. citizens -- who cherish their 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms as they cherish their freedom --  to collectively cringe.

On Thursday, U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will be in Mexico City to discuss ways to prevent smuggling weapons into Mexico. Mexican President Felipe Calderon said recently that "it is necessary to reduce the sale of weapons, particularly of high-power weapons, in the United States."

(That pitter-patter of feet you hear is the sound of U.S. citizens running to the nearest gun store to purchase weapons before the gun-control screws are tightened on this side of the border.)

To be sure, gun sales in the U.S. will remain brisk during the coming months. Citizens and pro-gun groups anticipate changes anyway, under the new administration. Now they're concerned about a playing-off-of-fear factor related to the bloody violence unleashed almost daily by cartel members against each other in Mexico.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today published an Op-Ed piece by former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr on gun control. Barr wrote: "After enhancing their majorities in the House and Senate, and fresh from grabbing the brass ring at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Democratic leaders in Washington and their anti-gun counterparts in the Brady Campaign and elsewhere are energized and actively starting to push their anti-gun agenda."

Barr continued: "If the Obama administration -- like its predecessor --  was truly serious about stemming whatever the flow of firearms from the United States to Mexico might be (the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms claims 90% of guns used in shootings in Mexico come from the U.S., but it has offered no proof),  it could do so easily by simply enforcing and more closely monitoring our immigration and existing firearms laws."

And Barr concluded: "The gun-control crowd is pushing its radical agenda on these and many other fronts; and law-abiding Americans had better open their eyes to the clever ways in which they are plying their trade in the courts, the Congress and international forums. Much is at stake."

So it seems.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo (top): A revolver. Credit: Associated Press

Photo (bottom): Weapons captured in a raid last year by Mexican authorities engaged in a war against drug cartels. Credit: Associated Press

Comments

[SteveinArizona]

Anyone who has their head out of their 'tukus' knows that in Mexico, ANYTHING is legal, if you have enough bribe money, or 'connections'. Saying that banning guns in the US will stop violence in Mexico is like saying banning drugs in Mexico will stop drug use in the US.
I'm not giving up any of my rights, because drug addicts want their fix and drug cartels want drug money. Go kill the foolish drug addicts by lacing the drugs with cyanide and leave the rest of us alone........SERIOUSLY. That'd kill most of Hollywood! Yeh, I knew that was a good idea!

[gjdagis]

The people will no longer put up with any more gun laws in this country. I have spoken with hundreds (if not thousands) of people in the last year alone on the subject. They are from all walks of life and a proportionate number of them were liberals. They almost all (with very few exceptions) intend to disregard any more laws. I fear that if the government trues anything they will have a very serious fight on its hands and it could get very ugly !

[leopard_colony]

First of all automatic weapons used by the drug cartels are all but impossible to buy in the US. Only police and military are allowed to have those. The same is true of functioning grenades. That means the weapons obtained by the drug cartels from this country could only come from our police or military.

Also over strict gun laws results in everyone ignoring gun laws with much deadlier arms than are currently available. For a first hand report go to this link:
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=585309

[csadoc]

"Firearms are now routinely being transported from the U.S. into Mexico in violation of both U.S. and Mexican law. In fact, 90% of the firearms recovered in Mexico, and which are then successfully traced, were determined to have originated from various sources within the continental U.S."

THIS is the OFFICIAL statement of an ATF special agent (Statement of William Newell, Special Agent in Charge, Phoenix Field Division, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Before the United States House of Representatives
Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies March 24, 2009. Copy and pasted from ATF website: http://www.atf.gov/press/speech/2009/032409_newell-testimony.htm ).

This statement has been bastardized, in an effort to advance their gun-ban agenda, by anti-gun organizations like the Brady Campaign (formerly, Handgun CONTROL), anti-gun politicians and officials like Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder, and anti-gun liberal media outlets like MSNBC. Unfortunately, even more professional media outlets, talking heads, and the like, are regurgitating the bastardized version of the original statement.

The version being pushed (erroneously or puposefully) now is (just one of MANY examples), "On Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano visit Mexico to discuss ways to stop the smuggling of American weapons, which Mexico says account for 90% of confiscated arms here. The meeting is part of an urgent American effort to aid Mexico as it fights a bloody war against drug cartels".

There is a VAST difference between the perhaps, "factual' statement that 90% of guns recovered in Mexico AND which were SUCCESSFULLY TRACED, came from the U.S., and the bastardized statement that 90% of guns confiscated in Mexico are from the U.S.

The latter is an outright FABRICATION designed to further an anti-gun agenda.

Just as President Obama and his fellow gun-haters in his administration and congress don't want to see a (financial) crises go to waste, so too are they trying to use a perceived (MOST of the huge country of Mexico is not awash in violence (corruption and ineptitude, yes, but not violence) crisis near our border to further their agenda - "Sorry, but we're going to have to trample upon your 2nd Amendment rights in order to gain some additonal PERCEIVED security for our amigos South of the border" (Benjamin Franklin, and our founding fathers, are spinning in their graves about now).

This, latest, attack on our 2nd Amendment rights won't wash with the VAST majority of Americans, and most especially, American gun-owners - be they Republican, Democrat, or whatever.

Don't tread on us bureaucrats.

We are too in tune to your M.O., too large in number (a CONSERVATIVE estimate WAS 80 MILLION, but since January 20, 2009, it's MANY, MANY MILLIONS more, I'm sure), we vote, and now, thanks to you Mr. Obama, many of us are BRAND NEW owners of guns (including the kind you'd like to ban) and fervent supporters and defenders of our 2nd Amendment RIGHTS.

[not a socialist]

Why let the Mexicans have all the fun? Join the NRA and buy a machine gun. Yes, it is possible for the average guy to own a machine gun, just fill out the right forms and pay the tax.

[TJ Miller]

A well-armed populace is the best defense against tyranny

[James Raider]

THE WAR ON DRUGS IS A WAR ON OUR OWN SOCIETY

Prohibition strains the Constitution and The War on Drugs has been a misguided failure. END IT.

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2009/04/war-on-drugs-time-for-change.html

Time to regain control of our streets and our sanity.

[Michael Levine]

"I'm not giving up any of my rights, because drug addicts want their fix and drug cartels want drug money. Go kill the foolish drug addicts by lacing the drugs with cyanide and leave the rest of us alone........SERIOUSLY. That'd kill most of Hollywood! Yeh, I knew that was a good idea!"

How did you write that on the computer? I picture you saying that in your grease covered overalls from underneath your '72 pickup with a beer in one hand, a wrench in the other with a Camel cigarette hanging from your mouth. What did you do, come in for in for a spell to get out of that hot Arizona sun? Or did your wife call you into the double wide cuz' supper was ready?

I live in Hollywood and I'm glad you don't!

[leopard_colony]

"Yes, it is possible for the average guy to own a machine gun, just fill out the right forms and pay the tax." Only if your state allows, only if you pass BATF and FBI checks, only if the machine gun was made before 1968, only if you can pay several thousand for the firearm. All automatic firearms made after 1968 can be possessed by police or military, period. You can not walk into a gun store and just buy one.

[leopard_colony]

Our Secretary of State has stated that drug cartel assault rifles (machine guns), rockets, and grenades are from the US. Only law enforcement and military can possess them. That means our law enforcement or military are providing those weapons to Mexican drug cartels. So why bother restricting civilian weapons? Here's a link to Ms. Clinton's statement: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/03/26/2009-03-26_secretary_of_state_hillary_clintons_call.html

[Christopher Hoffman]

The futility and utter failure of supply-side gun control efforts should be obvious. It makes the war on drugs look like a smashing success. If gun control offered a real solution, then places like Washington D.C. and Mexico would be the safest places on the planet.

And don't buy into that malarkey that the weapons of war are coming into Mexico from civilians in the US.

Oh, sure there's a trickle of civilian smll arms, but the cartels are using military grade weaponry supplied to the Mexican Army which is provided by guess who? Right. Courtesy of the good 'ole U.S.A. What doesn't come from our own government, is brought through the same channels as the tons of drugs that travel up through South America.

Wake up, folks. No one is buying rocket propelled grenades, fully automatic weapons, or mortars in US gun shops.

Even if the utopian gun-control fairy were to sweep away all the weapons currently held in private hands, we need only look at our complete failure to stem the flow of millions of tons of illegal contraband, and undocumented immigrants, to measure our likelihood of success in preventing ANY kind of weapon from being illegally brought into the country. The demand WILL be met.

But then, it's never just about the particular tool used to perpetrate evil. In Rwanda, there was genocide committed primarily with 99 cent Chinese machetes. So-called gun control is nothing but a distraction that prevents us from looking at the real roots of societies ills, the real challenges of hate, ignorance, disenfranchisement, injustice, greed, and yes, evil.

Furthermore, supply side gun control (which is definitively gun control as we know it in the US) will NEVER work in a country which has more than thirty million guns in private hands, and which has a constitutional amendment prohibiting the infringement of the right.

[Enough]

I am an educated man, and an avowed liberal on most issues. I have had enough of the gun laws. Touch my guns, crazies, and I swear I'll join the Republicans tomorrow.

[Larry]

Why won't the BATFE release the serial numbers from the captured weapons? Brcause they will trace to south america and and the corrupt Mexican military selling US fed.gov brokered arms to the cartels.

There have been enough firearms sold EACH MONTH for the last 4 months in the US to outfit the entire Chineese military. There have been over 1.5 BILLION rounds of ammo sold for EACH of those months. Do you think folks are buying all that to just give it up to fed.gov?

[Jon K.]

"The Arizona Republic today ran a story on Mexico's gun-control laws, among the strictest in the world, and quoted a Mexican gun shopper as saying, "If the United States had a system like ours, we wouldn't have so many problems here in Mexico.""

Listen, I am clearly anti-gun nut. I find the NRA and 25% of gun owners to be a bunch of paranoid lunatics with inferiority complexes which they shore up by feeling "tougher" because they've got a gun.

That much said, the LAST thing I want is for America to have gun-control policy like Mexico. Quite frankly, if Mexico had a gun policy more like the United States, then they wouldn't have the problem that they have down there.

Mexico's gun-control policy is not there to limit crime. It's there to keep guns out of the hands of the people so they don't rise up against the corrupt elite who selfishly horde the wealth of Mexico while so many live in poverty.

I'm absolutely okay with a fair degree of gun-control in the United States, but we should make those decisions based upon what is best for the United States, not because Mexico can't get it's act together.

I'm tired of coddling Mexico. It's been 175 years now that the country has been a train wreck. They need to get their act together and tough love is the only thing that is going to help them along on that process.

[gama]

arivaaa AMERICA!!!

[Cesar]

If you want to know how the guns confiscated in Mexico, came from the U.S> look no further than the fact that they are of U.S. manfacture. That much is true.

What they are neglecting to tell you is that those are the weapons the U.S. government is giving to the mexican army and police to fight the "war on drugs". Then, through corruption, they are going out the back door of the armories and into the hands of the narcotrafficantes.

[Dan M.]

When will the media stop printing these freaking lies?

The ATF, under oath, has only claimed that 90% of the guns THAT THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT ALLOWS THEM TO TRACE, WHICH IS LESS THAN 25% OF ALL GUNS REPORTED SEIZED, come from the United States. WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER 10% OF THAT 25%? WHAT ABOUT THE 75% THAT THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT WON'T EVEN LET THE ATF LOOK AT?

DO YOU REALIZE THAT MACHINE GUNS AND EXPLOSIVES ARE NOT FOR SALE ON THE CIVILIAN MARKET HERE IN THE US? DO YOU REALIZE THAT YOUR OWN PAPER PRINTED THE SOURCE OF THE MACHINE GUNS AND EXPLOSIVES THAT ARE MAKING THEIR WAY INTO MEXICO (SOUTH AMERICA)? DO YOU REALIZE THAT THE US GOVERNMENT SUPPLIES HEAVY WEAPONS TO THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT AND THAT THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT IS CORRUPT? DO YOU THINK MAYBE THESE WEAPONS ARE FLOWING FROM THE US GOVERNMENT TO THE DRUG CARTELS?

WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR YOU IDIOTS TO PRACTICE HONEST JOURNALISM?

[DustoneGT]

Come and take them!

[Pancho]

Michael Levine

“How did you write that on the computer? I picture you saying that in your grease covered overalls from underneath your '72 pickup with a beer in one hand, a wrench in the other with a Camel cigarette hanging from your mouth. What did you do, come in for in for a spell to get out of that hot Arizona sun? Or did your wife call you into the double wide cuz' supper was ready?”

Just the comment I would expect from a member the Master Race.

Lets disarm Israel !

[Pancho]

Michael Levine

“How did you write that on the computer? I picture you saying that in your grease covered overalls from underneath your '72 pickup with a beer in one hand, a wrench in the other with a Camel cigarette hanging from your mouth. What did you do, come in for in for a spell to get out of that hot Arizona sun? Or did your wife call you into the double wide cuz' supper was ready?”

Just the comment I would expect from a member the Master Race.

Lets disarm Israel !

[doc6694]

Wouldn't it be more to the point to enforce the border againt the violent thugs instead of further abridging a constitutionally-enumerated right?

Why do the the law-abiding citizens have to pay for the actions of criminals yet again?

And why would we want to give Mexico veto power over the rights of American citizens?

Build a wall, and put soldiers on the border to prevent the war from spreading too far into the United States.

It's just common sense.

[ScottyDog]

Here is how you stop the violence in Mexico overnight without taking Americans Constitutional rights away from them, decriminalize drugs and stop the failed war on drugs.

We should outright legalize marijuana and quit wasting billions every year on the failed war on drugs. If we taxed it like we do alcohol, the Government could lower our taxes. California already has a booming marijuana business in northern California.

Despite the propaganda printed in most main stream newspapers, drug use does not increase when it is legalized, it actually decreases with the violence on the streets between gangs being eliminated. Desperate for credibility, drug squads are misleading the public by linking grass and guns together in
staged media events. Violence is simply the timeless method of regulating market-share during prohibition and is, thus, a creation of criminal black markets, not a product of pot smoking.

In Switzerland, crime dropped 60% after they went to heroin maintenance instead of throwing heroin addicts in prison. Isn’t it time we stop taking the Freedom and Liberty away from Americans and do the right thing?

[Bill]

Administration Inflates U.S. Gun Presence in Mexico

EXCLUSIVE: You've heard this shocking "fact" before -- on TV and radio, in newspapers, on the Internet and from the highest politicians in the land: 90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/04/02/myth-percent-guns-mexico-fraction-number-claimed/

Video http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=4137802&maven_referralPlaylistId=c985e69916535a2170b2b18ab0ab7eb60401f9bb&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/04/02/myth-percent-guns-mexico-fraction-number-claimed/

[Jimi]

Just more government propaganda. Funny, if we lie to the feds they imprison us, if they lie to us they get elected.

The frauds in DC are afraid of us, as well they should. If they come for my guns, they can take them BULLETS FIRST.

Where's John Lee Malvo when you need him?

[Johnny]

Oh you Americans and your guns. How can you call the ATF's statistic that that 90% of guns used in shootings in Mexico come from the US 'government propaganda', and then trust Fox News' propaganda? Fox News cannot conduct proper research at all and cannot say anything without adding their nonsensical, biased republican agenda. The point of the statistic is not the 90% part, even if it is not that high the fact is that a large amount of guns (especially assault rifles, heavy artillery machine guns, fragmentation grenades, bulletproof vests and the like) are making their way from the United States to Mexican narco cartels in order to fight the army, police and each other. With the recent five mass shootings in ONE week in America, the pressure for a strict ban on the sale of guns will be severely increase. Don't you worry Americans, your 'right' to bear arms and kill will soon be infringed upon and the world doesn't feel sorry for you at all.