(AP Photo/Javier Verdin)
UPDATE: GAO Report available here.
--------------
The "90% of Mexican 'crime guns come from the U.S.'" tactic is back. Depending on the "authorized journalist" bandying it about, the claim may or may not be tempered with qualifiers.
[T]he growing number of weapons being smuggled into Mexico comprise more than 90% of the seized firearms that can be traced by authorities there.
See, this in itself is sleight of mind. As is this Associated Press "report":
[O]ver the past three years, more than 90 percent of the firearms traced after being seized in Mexico have come from the US. The figure is slightly less over a five-year period.
"While it is impossible to know how many firearms are illegally trafficked into Mexico in a given year, over 20,000, or around 87 percent, of firearms seized by Mexican authorities and traced over the past 5 years originated in the United States"...
We also learn an interesting factoid:
ATF did not tell ICE about a covert operation where ATF agents delivered weapons across the border in an attempt to ferret out the Mexican organizations receiving illegal arms. ATF should have notified ICE about the controlled attempt to export weapons illegally, the GAO said. Lack of coordination raised the chances that the weapons could end up in the wrong hands.
That's almost funny.
Back to The Times:
[I]llegally obtained U.S. weapons -- including an increasing number of automatic rifles -- are being used to kill thousands of Mexican police, soldiers, elected officials and civilians, the report said.
"Illegally obtained."
Seeing as how mere citizens can't buy post-Hughes Amendment full autos, and the controls to legally purchase older machine guns include registration, paying a tax and getting your application signed by your local chief law enforcement officer, not to mention paying an exorbitant price because of limited supply and open demand, one can only wonder if ICE was correct in suspecting government conduits for unlawful transfers...
And then we have this departure from talking points by The Wall Street Journal:
In 2008, of the almost 30,000 weapons seized by Mexican law enforcement, only 7,200 were submitted to the bureau for tracing, the study said. The number of weapons submitted would be higher were it not for bureaucratic problems, U.S. and Mexican officials said, according to the study.
Now wait a minute...90% of 7,200 out of 30,000...and then one report claims 20,000 are 90% of guns seized over the past five years...would somebody please give us a straight set of comparable numbers?
And what happened to the "305,424 confiscated weapons locked in vaults, just a fraction of those used by criminals in Mexico..."?
Yeah, sounds like "bureaucratic problems," doesn't it?
So why the renewed interest in numbers, and what's the upshot?
The Government Accountability Office is releasing their report on arms trafficking to Mexico. And they'll be using it to stump for "policy change," which is a euphemism for infringing on your and my right to own and sell firearms.
Among their reported recommendations? Back to The Times:
Some findings cited laws and policies in the U.S. and Mexico that could make it difficult to institute lasting reforms such as lax U.S. laws for collecting and reporting information on firearms purchases, and a lack of required background checks for private firearms sales.
Ah, so that's it. See, the problem is, criminals laugh at all the laws against illegal purchases and international arms trafficking that we have now--those are for the suckers who obey them. But if we can just enact a few more prohibitions that will affect the "law-abiding," why everything will fall into place!
And we can confidently make these recommendations while admitting that the data we're using to extrapolate a conclusion is nowhere near complete. But once we get those "bureaucratic problems" ironed out, why, we "expect to fix" that any time now. In the mean time, let's pass more 'gun control" edicts!
Here's the GAO's "mission," just in case anyone's interested (because they don't appear to be):
[T]o support the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. We provide Congress with timely information that is objective, fact-based, nonpartisan, nonideological, fair, and balanced.
Funny, I don't see a word about advocating infringements on the right of the people to keep and bear arms through mandatory registration and ending private sales of our property...of course, I don't see that in the charter for Congress, either...
I wanted to be able to link Gun Rights Examiner readers to the report itself, but it is not yet posted on the GAO website. I called and spoke to a nice lady there who told me it should be available online later today. I'll be watching for it, and will post a link to it as soon as I see it.
In the mean time, here's some stuff that can bring you up to date on what we've learned so far about this outrage of making our rights conditional based on the activities of foreign criminals:
- What does 'Operation Southbound Steel' tell us about smuggling U.S. guns to Mexico?
- Do 90% of Mexican 'crime guns' come from U.S.?
- We're being lied to about U.S. guns and Mexican cartels. Why?
- Do U.S. government arms exports play a part in arming Mexican cartels?
- Exposing lies about U.S. guns and Mexican crime
- Mexican warehouse exposes gun grabber cartel lies
- The Mexican 'dog and pony show' on guns
- U.S. 'gun control' not the answer to Mexican crime
- Mexican prison break shows deeper problems than U.S. guns
- More 'gun control' won't stop drug war corruption and violence
- Some journalists won't admit truth about Mexican 'crime gun' numbers
------------
You're the problem!
Oregon Firearms Federation tells us about an unbelievable politician who blames gun rights activists for killing a bill because they didn't want their privacy violated.
But that's OK, because her "husband and son are hunters and guns have been a part of our family's culture."
Good grief.
Click here to read more.
------------
KABA needs your help
Dear Friend of KeepAndBearArms.com:
Our website is experiencing a critical cash flow problem this spring & summer.
We have so many urgent needs at the moment. In particular getting caught up on bills owed.
We are also trying to expand the number of gun owners that visit our site before Congress and many state legislatures take up new gun control measures. To do so requires us to place banner ads on other sites and ads in search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.
We plan on expanding our reach with more news, information, and grassroots action projects to expose and defeat the enemies of freedom.
Help us send a loud and clear message to the United Nations, Brady Center, Million Mom March, Violence Policy Center, and the entire anti-gun rights movement.
BUT, at this time, we need funds. SO, if you can join, renew, and/or make a mid-year contribution RIGHT NOW, it will help us immensely. We need to raise $9,870.00 from generous donors to meet our obligations.
Check out other Gun Rights Examiners:
- Atlanta: Armed customer stops robbery
- Austin: Women on Target: Preparing women to defend Liberty
- Boston: Derrick Z. Jackson’s hot air, will Obama listen?
- Charlotte: The gun debate (explained for liberals)
- Cleveland:
Resistance and compliance buy equal response in laundromat robbery
- DC: And then there were nine!
- Denver: United Kingdom solves problem of knife wielding thugs
- Los Angeles: Original Homeland Security Impeaches Pass ID.
- Minneapolis: Dirty Deeds in Virginia
- Seattle: ABC’s June 24 White House broadcast: More press prostitution from network that gave us Sawyer’s bias
- St. Louis: When gun bans are not enough--the war on . . . pocket knives?
- Wisconsin: Gun rights advocates make progress
Comments
Nice to know, re: Steigler, that ugly,fat,stupid socialist broads can still find things to do in life, like screw up everything in sight, then blame everyone else. Hey, it's the Marxist way! I'm not supprised by the GAO report, the lying in DC has been out of control for a long time, they're just speeding things up. Q: Why is the cocaine in DC so potent? A: The cocaine in DC is government inspected! Either that, or lasertoad is working overtime.
Hmmn. Somebody among the Obamunists apparently didn't get the memo. Pushing gun control is a BAD idea. Oh well, guess we'll have to give them a practical demonstration of why. Gee... there's a mid-term election coming up, isn't there.......
I can't speak for Mexico- but I can tell you that here in Toronto, 90% of the unregistered handguns that are recovered by the police after criminal shootings, are imported from the United States by Jamaican gangsters for the drug bizness! (This serves as a make-work project for lawyers).
Dave,
It is already illegal for the average citizen (especially criminals) to "import" guns into canada. So, making another law saying it is doubly illegal isn't likely to do much. Wouldn't you agree?
@ Dave
You say "Jamaican gangsters for the drug bizness"
So are you blaming Jamaicans, drugs, or Americans for the violation of several of your laws (and ours)? Does the unregistered handgun fairy drop off the other 10%?
Maybe without an artificially high market value for those drugs there would be no need for the protection, turf wars, and violence. Drop the BS war on (some) drugs and watch the violent young "entrepreneurs" seek out something else. Take the glamor out of gangs and see what happens.
Quit going after MY right to defend myself against these barbarians.
To pick a tiny nit:
"We also learn an interesting factoid:" --
Although often used in the manner intended above, a "factoid" is not an interesting small bit of factual information; rather, a "factoid" is a falsehood often repeated as if it were truth.
fac·toid n.
1. A piece of unverified or inaccurate information that is presented in the press as factual, often as part of a publicity effort, and that is then accepted as true because of frequent repetition.
2. -Usage Problem- A brief, somewhat interesting fact.
Usage Note: The -oid suffix normally imparts the meaning "resembling, having the appearance of" to the words it attaches to. Thus the anthropoid apes are the apes that are most like humans (from Greek anthr?pos, "human being"). In some words -oid has a slightly extended meaning—"having characteristics of, but not the same as," as in humanoid, a being that has human characteristics but is not really human. [continued due to space limit...]
Similarly, factoid originally referred to a piece of information that appears to be reliable or accurate, as from being repeated so often that people assume it is true. The word still has this meaning in standard usage. Seventy-three percent of the Usage Panel accepts it in the sentence It would be easy to condemn the book as a concession to the television age, as a McLuhanish melange of pictures and factoids which give the illusion of learning without the substance. · Factoid has since developed a second meaning, that of a brief, somewhat interesting fact, that might better have been called a factette. The Panelists have less enthusiasm for this usage, however, perhaps because they believe it to be confusing. Only 43 percent of the panel accepts it in Each issue of the magazine begins with a list of factoids, like how many pounds of hamburger were consumed in Texas last month. Many Panelists prefer terms such as statistics, trivia, useless facts, and just plain facts in this sentence.
This is what you get when you insist on electing liars thieves and sex offenders into office. But then what choice do we have any more. best I can say is the lesser of two evils. obummer is going to cause civil war or cost us our freedoms. just wait and see. you want truth? refuse to buy the main stream media news papers. refuse to buy from anyone who advertises on this media. tell the advertisers why you are doing this. hit the money grabbing traitors to the country in the pocket book and make them reform. way to go for freedom!!!!
Isn't it a shame that the Mexicans have to rely on U.S. time, money and efforts to keep contraband from ENTERING their country. Makes no sense to me. But, it seems to work for our Democrats.
It is all I can do now to muster up some sort of quirky, yet true remark about all of the idiots that put the blame on everything else but the problem itself. There is nothing I can say right now that hasn't already been said so I'll reapeat something. If all of the dumb, stupid, arrogant, blind, egotistical, butt sniffing, ass kissing bleeding heart sycophants of this world would be so kind as to depart from this civilization, it just might be a better place.
Many of the small arms used by the Mexican gangs and cartel killers have been provided by turncoat or corrupt military and law enforcement people. You know how money talks in Mexico. Many of those weapons were provided to the Mexican military by the U.S. government. Clearly then, Barbara Boxer needs to introduce legislation to ban these weapons (including grenades, rocket launchers, etc,) and keep them OUT of the wrong hands of the U.S. government! Then, we can all go home arm in arm happy and safe at last! See, it's all so simple when you're a liberal
Let us just face the fact...our government at all levels is unable to even begin to control the crime be it "white collar, blue collar", or teeshirt. Our police and the courts have been handcuffed by "political correctness" and unethical lawyers that they, the government, are going after the good guys and gals because we are the only ones left that will bend to their wind (hot air). I for one am ready to join the ranks of the criminal because then I won't give a D... about laws.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!