Numbers game: Justification for 'assault weapon' import ban doesn't add up

United States Senator Dianne "Turn Them All In" Feinstein (D-CA) recently urged president Obama to--without bothering with the tedious legislative process--ban the importation of so-called "assault weapons," on the novel theory that the most sensible way to reduce violence in Mexico is to block the importation of firearms to the U.S.

I urge you to review enforcement of the GCA and take any regulatory steps necessary to stop the both the importation of all military-style, non-sporting firearms, and the assembly of those firearms from imported parts.

The authority for such a measure would, as the theory goes, stem from a clause in the Gun Control Act of 1968, empowering the Attorney General (in this case, rabidly anti-gun Attorney General Eric Holder) to ban the importation of firearms that are not "generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes." As we recently discussed regarding a similar potential import ban on some shotguns, the BATFE has even taken it upon itself to define what constitutes "authorized sport," so as to get around the fact that there are some popular shooting sports for which the politically incorrect firearms are "particularly suitable."

Sen. Feinstein's proposal is basically identical to one made by Congressman Elliot Engel (D-NY) two years ago.

And just in time, a "study," funded in part by the notoriously anti-gun Joyce Foundation (and which almost instantly got some cheerleading from the "progressive" Huffington Post), characterizes Romanian-made semi-automatic copies of the AK-47, imported to the U.S. and then trafficed to Mexico, as "the scourge" of the drug wars in Mexico.

Looking at their numbers, though, one notices a curious thing:

The Romanian AKs — sold by Florida-based Century International Arms as the WASR-10 — have become the most common gun purchased in the United States since 2006 to be traced to crimes in Mexico . . .

Reports from the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) show that over the last four years, more than 500 of the WASR-10s imported into the United States by Century were recovered in Mexico after being purchased in the United States. That is the most of any rifle or pistol purchased, recovered and traced during that four-year span, accounting for more than 17% of the total guns recovered, the reports show.

But wait a second--if 500 guns represents "17% the total guns recovered" (note that they're not saying "17% of the total guns recovered and traced"--a huge distinction, and one that seems to have first been noticed by National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea), then that total is fewer than 3,000 guns, and this is over a period of four years--for an average of not quite 750 per year.

How can that be? Senator Feinstein says that "over 50,000" of the guns recovered in Mexico over the last four years were either manufactured in, or imported into, the U.S., before going to Mexico. The Brady Campaign's Dennis "What People?" Henigan says that "of 75,000 firearms seized by the Mexican government in the last three years, about 80%, or 60,000 firearms, came from the United States." The New York Times states, with its unimpeachable authority, that, "In the past four years, more than 60,000 guns connected to crimes in Mexico have been tracked back to American gun dealers." The Washington Post one-ups the NY Times, and claims that, "More than 65,000 guns have been traced back to sales in the United States."

We've discussed before the fact that this confusion stems from those who advocate an ever more restrictive regime of "gun control" playing fast and loose with the huge difference between the number of guns recovered in Mexico, and the number recovered and traced (a number that was at one time, according to Sen. John Kerry--hardly a friend of gun owners--to be about 25% of those recovered). Eventually, when enough gun rights advocates had made enough noise about the other side's sleight of hand with regard to percentages, BATFE Deputy Director Kenneth Melson announced that the agency would no longer even talk about percentages (and perhaps defiantly yelled "So there!" and stuck out his tongue).

And speaking of the BATFE, consider this: Sipsey Street Irregulars' Mike Vanderboegh, who along with David Codrea, brought the whole sordid "Project Gunwalker" scandal into the light, has it from one of the whisteblowing BATFE insiders that that agency has been complicit in the trafficking of over 2,000 semi-automatic rifles to Mexico.

If that is correct, and if the Joyce Foundation funded study's numbers are as well, the BATFE has sanctioned the trafficking of a quantity of guns that amounts to more than 2/3 of the number that can be traced back to the U.S. over the last four years. And the Obama administration wants to expand the BATFE's funding--especially the operations in Mexico--and look who is rumored to be the BATFE's next attaché to Mexico.

Who's side are these people on?