Mayor's group: Government data proves 3 of 4 guns used in Mexican drug violence comes from U-S

A new report shows where many criminals in Mexico are getting their guns: From here in the U-S.

Federal data compiled by the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, found that three out of four guns used in Mexican drug cartel crimes and submitted for tracing were originally sold in Southwestern border states and that from 2006-2009, Texas supplied four out of 10 of the guns used in Mexican crimes.

Mexican officials have long maintained that the country's unprecedented violence has been fueled both by weapons sold in the U-S and an American appetite for drugs. Mexican has strict laws on gun purchase and ownership.

Congress had initially blocked the release of the government data used to generate the group's new report. (The data is from Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms). The data analyzed in the study was requested in 2009 and not provided till March of this year. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who co-chairs Mayors Against Illegal Guns, blames Congress for delaying its release.

Reality check: There's a problem with this report that goes beyond the gun advocate's conspiracy theory that all these mayors hate guns. The problem here is the word "submitted," as in "traceable." The Mexican government submits weapons to the ATF which then traces the guns, and critics suspect the guns being submitted are just the ones from the U-S. The report doesn't saying anything about the total number of guns confiscated. In other words, what's the difference between 90 percent of traceable firearms, and 90 percent of firearms? We don't know. It would help, though, if we did, wouldn't it?
    On the other hand, a study by the Government Accountability Office last year made pretty much the same claim the mayors are making, that most firearms recovered in drug violence in Mexico come from the United States.
   This GAO study acknowledged the data gap. In 2008, of the almost 30,000 weapons seized by Mexican law enforcement, only 7,200 were submitted to the bureau for tracing. Why didn't they submit the rest of the weapons, or at least more of them. Both U-S and Mexican officials cited "bureaucratic problems," according to the study. Officials told investigators they expect to fix those problems to allow more complete data to be gathered. In this latest study, or at least in the analysis by the mayors' group, it's not known if those bureaucratic problems were fixed.
    The GAO study also quoted law enforcement officials who doubt the claims of critics that Mexican cartels may also be getting weapons from Asia and elsewhere. Law-enforcement officials said they saw no reason why drug cartels would go through the difficulty of importing guns long distances "when it is so easy for them to do so from the United States."
   I'm no expert and I'm no fan of guns but unless we get some hard numbers, it's hard to get this to add up. Take an assault rifle, which seems to be a gun of choice among the cartels. This is a full-auto weapon. In order to buy one in the U-S you have to:
   a) Live in a state that allows it
   b) Submit your fingerprints to the ATF
   c) Wait months for a background investigation
   d) Be interviewed by your local chief of police and have their approval
   e) Pay thousands of dollars
    Under those kinds of restrictions, is it possible for so much violence to be carried out by American-bought full-auto (or semi-auto converted to full auto). I'd love for someone to identify a single documented case of a crime committed in Mexico with a real assault rifle formerly owned by a private American citizen. Let's see who that John Q Public is. I'm not sure you'll find him.
    So where are the guns coming from?