reply to post by rich23
Your missing the point... MANY of us agree that "Federal" US Arms to the Mexican military are being used to arm the Cartels.... And many of us agree
that "some" semi-auto rifles sold by a very "few" unscrupulous "legal" gun dealers end up in Mexico.
What we don't agree on (I think) is the MSM portraying that 90% to 95% of these weapons are coming from these "legal" gun dealers and portraying
this as "YOU MUST BAN WEAPONS" in the US and it will solve the problem.
Below are some examples of the BLATANT exaggerations to outright LIES that the MSM is using to make it "appear" that this problem is 100% the fault
of our 2nd Amendment rights.
www.cbsnews.com...
"Let me express to you that we've seized in this two years more than 25,000 weapons and guns, and more than 90 percent of them came from United
States, and I'm talking from missiles launchers to machine guns and grenades."
When the U.S. enforced the assault weapons ban, only 21 percent of the weapons Mexico seized from traffickers were assault rifles, Eduardo Medina
Mora, Mexico's Attorney General said.
Today, it is more than half, and law enforcement officials are paying with their lives - some 800 have been killed in the past two years.
Both Medina Mora and Calderon said the U.S. should aggressively enforce its gun laws and pressure sellers to keep weapons in the hands of law-abiding
citizens.
The U.S. State Department said on Friday that U.S.-purchased or stolen weapons account for 95 percent of Mexico's drug related killings, and that
Mexican cartels are increasingly carrying out contract killings in the U.S.
Now... read that twice ... what is the "perception"?
The perception is that "during the assault weapons ban in the US (that didn't ban a single AR-15 by the way) that "traffickers somehow had a harder
time getting weapons. Blatant Exaggeration. Then the 95% of drug related killings were done with US purchased (OK, Let's be real here, this is meant
to insinuate (falsely) that these "purchased" weapons were from legal US dealers NOT the U.S. Govt which armed the Mexican Military and the Zetas
and are the majority of weapons the bad guys are now using.) legal firearms.
Mexican cartels often pay U.S. citizens to purchase assault rifles or other guns at gun shops, then sell them to a cartel representative at a
U.S. gun show, where registration rules are much less stringent and the gun sale can't be easily traced.
OK, next example... what is implied here? HOW MANY, WHERE? The "perception" here again is that ALL of these weapons are from legal US stores.
Another Blatant Exaggeration to say the least.
Now for some REALLY BIG exaggerations (Outright Lies)
LA TIMES
www.latimes.com...
An estimated 97% of the arms used by the Mexican cartels -- including military-grade grenade launchers and assault weapons -- are purchased at
sporting goods stores and gun shows on the U.S. side of the border and then smuggled south, according to the Mexican government.
The United States is enabling the bloodshed in Mexico. We have a moral responsibility to stop arming the murderers and kidnappers -- our national
security demands it.
Newsweek
www.newsweek.com...
After fierce resistance from the gun lobby and its allies in Congress, Attorney General Eric Holder has dialed back talk about reimposing a
federal assault weapons ban to help curb the spiraling violence in Mexico.
As much as 90 percent of the assault weapons and other guns used by Mexican drug cartels are coming from the United States, fueling drug-related
violence that is believed to have killed more than 7,000 people since January 2008, according to estimates by Mexican and U.S. law enforcement
officials. But the political obstacles to addressing the U.S.-to-Mexico weapons flow are dramatically underscored by Holder's experience in just the
last few weeks.
Again, it is "suggested" that these Arms are from your local legal gun stores!
And that somehow re-instating the useless "ban" is going to do anything about Mexican crime. BLATANT EXAGGERATION!
ABC News
U.S. Guns Arming Mexican Drug Gangs; Second Amendment to Blame?
abcnews.go.com...
"It's virtually impossible to buy a firearm in Mexico as a private citizen, so this country is where they come," said Newell. But U.S. efforts
to stop the smuggling of tens of thousands of guns to Mexico, including high-powered assault weapons, have been hampered by lenient American gun laws
NY Times
www.nytimes.com...
But A.T.F. officials estimate 90 percent of the weapons recovered in Mexico come from dealers north of the border.
(here they busted an
Egyptian gun dealer... good riddance! but again, it appears ALL these nasty guns are from US gun dealers.)
experts.foreignpolicy.com...
There are nearly 7,000 gun shops along the southern U.S. border, about three for every mile. They sell thousands of hand grenades,
rocket-propelled grenade launchers, AK-47s, and "cop killer" guns and bullets that cut through Kevlar body armor. The weapons quickly flow south,
again with barely a nod from U.S. Border Patrol.
What? Are you freeking serious? What gun store sells grenades, RPG's, Grenade Launchers, and full auto weapons? (LIES)
Where do they come from then?
www.foxnews.com...
So, if not from the U.S., where do they come from? There are a variety of sources:
-- The Black Market. Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar, with fragmentation grenades from South Korea, AK-47s from China, and shoulder-fired rocket
launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet bloc manufacturers.
-- Russian crime organizations. Interpol says Russian Mafia groups such as Poldolskaya and Moscow-based Solntsevskaya are actively trafficking drugs
and arms in Mexico.
- South America. During the late 1990s, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) established a clandestine arms smuggling and drug
trafficking partnership with the Tijuana cartel, according to the Federal Research Division report from the Library of Congress.
-- Asia. According to a 2006 Amnesty International Report, China has provided arms to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chinese assault
weapons and Korean explosives have been recovered in Mexico.
-- The Mexican Army. More than 150,000 soldiers deserted in the last six years, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo. Many took their
weapons with them, including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle made in Belgium.
-- Guatemala. U.S. intelligence agencies say traffickers move immigrants, stolen cars, guns and drugs, including most of America's cocaine, along the
porous Mexican-Guatemalan border. On March 27, La Hora, a Guatemalan newspaper, reported that police seized 500 grenades and a load of AK-47s on the
border. Police say the cache was transported by a Mexican drug cartel operating out of Ixcan, a border town.
'These Don't Come From El Paso'
Ed Head, a firearms instructor in Arizona who spent 24 years with the U.S. Border Patrol, recently displayed an array of weapons considered "assault
rifles" that are similar to those recovered in Mexico, but are unavailable for sale in the U.S.
"These kinds of guns -- the auto versions of these guns -- they are not coming from El Paso," he said. "They are coming from other sources. They
are brought in from Guatemala. They are brought in from places like China. They are being diverted from the military. But you don't get these guns
from the U.S."