“Mexico has some of the toughest gun-control laws in the world, a matter of pride for the nation's citizens. Yet Mexico is awash in weapons,” William Booth of The Washington Post asserts.
Mexican authorities insist that 90 percent of those weapons have been smuggled from the United States.
By way of reference, he links to an earlier report, part of a hit piece series his paper put out earlier in the month propagandizing about U.S. guns and Mexican drug crime. The thing is, you have to search through the entire five-page piece to find the one relevant reference, which hardly backs up what Booth wants his readers to walk away with:
The foundation and the National Rifle Association aggressively challenge statistics that show 80 to 90 percent of the weapons seized in Mexico are first sold in the United States, calling the numbers highly inflated. After being criticized by the gun lobby, ATF stopped releasing such statistics this year.
Undaunted, Booth continues to steer our impressions:
The Mexican military has been handling gun sales in strict military fashion since 1995. "Only a tiny percentage of our weapons end up in the hands of criminals," Manzano said. That percentage, he said, is less than 1.
Here’s the conclusion we’re being led to:
Manzano said the wide gulf in gun laws between Mexico and the United States creates an almost irresistible arms-trafficking market for the powerful criminal organizations terrorizing wide swaths of his country.
The 90% canard has been exposed so many times, and for so long, that a professional “Authorized Journalist” using it again here can only be explained by a truth-be-damned agenda.
As has the astounding corruption of both Mexican military and police forces, from whose ranks the narcoterrorist Los Zetas sprang, first as enforcers, and now as prime players in their own right.
But we’re to believe it’s due to that “wide gulf in gun laws.”
Here are some new, tangentially-related developments and indicators of a broader and deeper scope of factors:
More than 40 prison guards have been charged with helping 153 inmates escape from a prison in a northern Mexican border city.
From Sipsey Street Irregulars, sourcing CleanUpATF.org:
Border Patrol agent killed with ATF-smuggled AR? Some ATF agents seem to think so…
“…Word is that curious George Gillett the Phoenix ASAC stepped on it again. Allegedly he has approved more than 500 AR-15 type rifles from Tucson and Phoenix cases to be ‘walked’ to Mexico. Appears that ATF may be one of the largest suppliers of assault rifles to the Mexican cartels!”
Understand this is an unproven allegation. Still, that ATF insiders are raising and discussing it would seem worth investigating. Somehow, repeated calls for Congressional oversight hearings keep being ignored. And when the big boy media looks into things, they don’t dig any deeper than personnel disputes.
And as for Booth’s assertion that Mexico’s gun laws are “a matter of pride” for its citizens, a proven reliable source tells me that some guns are indeed making their way south, which no one has ever disputed—after all, it’s a porous border. Here’s what I’m told:
Frankly it's my opinion the drug cartels in Mexico are not getting their arms from the US civilian market. The arms that are going to Mexico are that of Mexican illegals going home and arming themselves in fear of the cartels and the Mexican govt. [who are sometimes one and the same]....I have that information from a well placed govt. source. Seems they got a taste of freedom here and "export" it back home with them.
I guess they don’t read The Washington Post.
Still, if we only infringed more on your and my right to keep and bear arms, and maybe banned some classes of weapons we don’t think you need, why, peace and harmony would once more smile upon us all, on both sides of the border.
Right?
Also see:
- WikiLeaks cables: Mexican military have ‘little faith’ in police
- Do 90% of Mexican 'crime guns' come from U.S.?
- Demand hearings into ATF corruption allegations
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A matter of resolve
Last year at this time, I came up with a series of New Year’s Resolutions to count down the days until January 1. Since they’re pretty much evergreen, I’m going to refer to them again this year, as something for newcomers to this column to consider, and as a reminder for those of you who have been long-time readers. Here’s today’s:
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Help wanted--inquire within
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Comments
El Paso = many armed citizens
Nuevo Laredo and Juarez = mostly helpless victims
And remember that ANY gun is a "crime gun" if the politicians and bureaucrats don't like it or YOU.
To paraphrase Mama Liberty and one of the comments from yesterday's NewsBusters link:
El Paso = many armed citizens, "lax" gun laws
Nuevo Laredo and Juarez = mostly helpless victims, "strict" gun control laws
El Paso = safe city, low murder rate
Nuevo Laredo and Juarez = dangerous cities, high murder rates
So the logical solution is to make El Paso more like Nuevo Laredo and Juarez, right?
Since the vast majority of the weapons seized in Mexico are untracable, it is impossible to say they came from the US.
Moreover, how many of the guns that DID come from the US came via a legal sale?
None of these people want to discuss such matters, because it would reveal the truth: Criminals do not follow gun laws any more than they follow other laws.
Booth is WaPo's Mexico City bureau chief. And I have it on good authority he wouldn't know out of which end of a gun the bullet comes.
Write intelligent, cogent letters to WaPo, pointing out the statistical discrepancy and failure to support the "lax gun laws" thesis with actual evidence.
Bury 'em in emails, letters and tweets.
You know, that "wide gulf" in gun laws can be closed in either of two ways. The Mexicans are certainly free to match our gun laws, you know.
The are lies and damned lies. William Booth spreads the latter.
Come on, Folks! Give The Post a break. They're only twisting the truth a little bit. What could be the harm in that?
As part of The Treaty of Versailles, Germany was forced to pay war reparations to the allied powers in gold for their costs of fighting WWI. For a variety of reasons, many of the governments that received these payments felt it prudent to store the gold in New York. At that time, New York was one of the focal points of what became known as "the international Zionist movement." Joseph Goebbels, Propagnda Minister of the German National Socialist Party was able to tie these facts together by twisting the truth just a little bit. In so doing, he was able to convince many of a German population reeling from the economic collapse of the 1920's into believing that Gemany's participation in WWI and their resulting economic misery were the fault of an international plot driven by the Jewish bankers of Europe and the United States for the purpose of looting Germany of its gold reserves.
Goebbels twisted the truth to blame Germany's economic collapse on innocent Jews. The Washington Post twists the truth to blame Mexican drug violence on law abiding American gun owners.
I would like to hear someone at the Post explain the difference.
DDS -- NRA Life Member
I'm certainly not going to EVER read a William Booth article - I would never support the Washington Post - paper or net version.
That is what screams the loudest to idiots like them - let them go broke by not allowing their dribble feed their kitty.
However, we need to continue to support people like David who are the 'night watchmen' sounding the alarm. God bless you David.
It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of those guns did come from the U.S.
Pres. Bush's Merida Initiative transfered thousands of guns from the U.S. military to the Mexican police. With the Mexican govt in bed with the cartels at every level, I would bet that half those guns went out the back door into the hands of the cartels before they were uncrated.
We'll never know because the Mexicans won't turn over but a fraction of the serial numbers.
Still, on the slim chance that the Mexicans are telling the truth (did I really just say that?) please find something out for me.
I noticed in pictures of weapons seized on the internet and TV news shows, rows of M-16 A2s with M-203 40 mm grenade launchers underneath. Also, Russian designed RPGs. And I saw at least one M-60 and a SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon)
Please find out if you can what gun store, or gun show, in America is selling these and let me know.
I want few.
How much does it usually cost to submit a Freedom of Information request. A copy of the inventory of the guns turned over to the ATF for tracing, Manufacturer, model, caliber and serial number should shed some light on the actual source of those guns. Even without trace data I would expect to find a significant number of M16's with consecutive serial numbers. Like a government shipment maybe?
Pour it on 'em, David. They know they cannot achieve the outcome they desire if the truth be told.
They're operating on the Josef Goebbles formula: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."
International weapons traffic is amazingly hard to track, but as others have pointed out, a lot of the hardware the Mexican drug gangs carry simply could not have been bought legally in the USA.
War story: 1983, Grenada. I'm reporting for a military pub. We break into the People's Army HQ; raid their files. We find shipping documents showing serial numbers of US M-16s given to the S. Vietnamese - docs show they moved from VN to Warsaw Pact to Cuba to Grenada and then to Nicaragua.... and some of those serial numbers had already shown up in the hands of the El Salvador guerillas.
Weapons are fungible.
The Feds are just as bad at lying as the so call journalistic scumbags. After you read some of the trash they write, you need to purge the trash out of your mind, and that's no easy fete. Thanks for the comment.
Why is it, there are no pictures/ photos of these people who bash the 2nd Amendment. There are no pictures at all, it's like these people are phantoms and their written garbage and hate appears out of nowhere, it's as though it's magic, and I don't believe in magic. Since I don't believe in magic these A#$HOLES are alive and kicking, and should be held accountable for the words they spew out.
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