Do 90% of Mexican 'crime guns' come from U.S.?

March 30, 9:04 AMGun Rights ExaminerDavid Codrea

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(AP Photo/Attorney General's Office)

Before I get into today's column, I'd like to make a few more observations about yesterday's.

Hopefully, it's clear to all that the three interdiction stops referred to in the ATF "Operation Southbound Steel" intelligence advisory information request were conducted by local law enforcement (specifically by the Pearl River and Jackson County Sheriff's departments, and the Gulfport PD). So it's not like the intrepid feds with their expanded Project Gunrunner budget are doing anything other than acting as a news aggregator here.

As one of my sources observed to me:

This is not the result of an ongoing federal investigation, it's BATF piggybacking on local cops...what is not being seized in Miss., they aren't seizing RPGs, grenades and Class III Military ARs and AKs. The point is that the military guns aren't coming from here. They come from Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba, Israel, Brazil and China...

That the cartels are getting military grade weapons from non-U.S. sources is borne out by journalists doing their own investigation instead of relying on government agencies for their talking points:

Most of these weapons are being smuggled from Central American countries or by sea, eluding U.S. and Mexican monitors who are focused on the smuggling of semiauto- matic and conventional weapons purchased from dealers in the U.S. border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Which brings us to one "reporter" who does parrot talking points, Matthew Price of BBC News, who "authoritatively" tells his readers:

It is estimated that at least 90% of the guns used by the Mexican drug trafficking organisations have come from the US.

Price may as well be working for the Brady Campaign, which tells those it hopes to manipulate:

More than 90% of the guns used by the drug cartels originate from U.S. gun sellers

And CNN spreads the meme via Brady Campaign president Paul Helmke and Brady board member and former Maryland Lieutenant Governor/US deputy attorney general Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who tell us in no uncertain terms:

American gun sellers supply the cartels with 95 to 100 percent of their guns, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Am I calling Price, BBC and the majority of establishment media following suit agenda-driven propagandists (or lazy incompetents) and the Bradys opportunistic liars trying to swindle us out of our rights? You tell me. Because here's what happens when we take these statements everyone assumes to be authoritative and true, and add one critical element: an oath or affirmation, with penalties for perjury.

I'd like to share with you a bit of testimony, from the Statement of David Ogden, Deputy Attorney General, United States Department of Justice, before the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing entitled “Southern Border Violence: Homeland Security Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Responsibilities”, presented March 25, 2009. Just a small bit, really, but a critical one, almost lost in the 20 pages of his statement:

According to ATF’s Tracing Center, 90 percent of the firearms about which ATF receives information are traceable to the United States.

Read it again, and compare it to what the antis are saying. It's very different, isn't it?

But it does raise the interesting question about why a guy with nothing more than a handful of friendly sources and access to the Internet (that would be me) "receives information" that is, according to sworn testimony before the Senate, apparently unknown to and uninvestigated by the agency tasked with enforcing the nation's gun laws. Or by the press...

The only explanations are ATF and their masters at DoJ are either hopelessly oblivious to what is really happening, that is, criminally negligent, or they are engaged in an outright conspiratorial fraud to deprive us of our rights.

Those are serious charges. I submit the sworn testimony of Deputy AG Ogden makes this a matter for official inquiry. Under glaring lights.

Why not go on the offensive instead of waiting for manipulators and deceivers to introduce further gun bans based on misrepresentations and lies? Why not demand of our representatives that they initiate hearings into what ATF actually knows about Mexican cartel guns and their suppliers? And take an extra close look at how they're deploying their manpower and resources?

You can start by contacting your representative and senators. Copy and paste the link to this article in your email. Then here's all you need to tell them, again a copy/paste:

Read this column. I expect you to open an official inquiry into why DoJ and ATF are misdirecting the American people on how Mexican drug cartels are supplying themselves with military grade weapons.

Who knows what this will result in? Perhaps nothing, or perhaps it will be the first few loose pebbles that precede the avalanche. Why not do it right now? And pass this along to your friends...?

What have you got to lose, a minute or two?

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Related: See Denver Gun Rights Examiner Dan Bidstrup's latest article, "Who is buying the guns in Mexico?"