Gang members stealing weapons from military, arming Mexican drug cartels?

April 8, 3:36 AMSt. Louis Gun Rights ExaminerKurt Hofmann

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     Photo: AP/Alexandre Meneghini

Those wishing to exploit the bloody drug war violence in Mexico in furtherance of their citizen disarmament agenda have relentlessly pushed the idea that the carnage there is largely enabled by the civilian gun market in the U.S.  The idea, evidently, is that because of the chaos in Mexico, American citizens have to be punished with more restrictive gun laws.  A central theme in that effort is some variation on this claim:

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

The slight problem with that claim is that it simply isn't true.

Recently,  Attorney General Holder--who, remember, brought up the idea of reinstating the ban on so-called "assault weapons" as a means of curtailing the Mexican violence--was forced to back away from the "90%" figure.

Even the rabidly anti-gun rights Violence Policy Center's Tom Diaz has been reduced to calling the "90%" figure a "red herring".

That's not what he said before . . . 

There's also the issue of weapons the U.S. supplies to Latin America as part of our foreign policy--weapons that later end up in drug cartel hands.

The above is background--my point today is to look at another source of the cartels' firepower that is indeed American, but is also completely unrelated to the civilian gun market--gang members who join the U.S. military, and steal weapons that are then trafficked in the black market.  A couple examples:

• In June 2006 an incarcerated US Army soldier and active gang member identified 60 to 70 gang-affiliated military personnel in his unit allegedly involved in the theft and sale of military equipment and weapons. The solider reported that many of the military personnel in charge of ammunition and grenade distribution are sergeants who are active gang members.

• A May 2006 interview with a former Marine and Gangster Disciple member incarcerated in Colorado detailed how easily soldiers-many of whom were gang members-stole military weapons and equipment and used them on the streets of US cities or sold them to civilian gang members.

For several years now, the military has been scrambling for recruits, as the U.S. tries to expand the ranks.  Inevitably, this has led to a loosening of standards, with criminal history and gang affiliation not necessarily considered disqualifying factors.

I am certainly not trying to impugn the character of U.S. troops, the vast majority of whom are the pride of our nation, but it cannot be ignored that with lower recruitung standards there is a concomitant increase in the incidence of criminal activity--weapons theft and smuggling included.

How important is this source to the Mexican cartels?   Perhaps not very, but I'll wager that they acquire more grenades, belt-fed machine guns, anti-tank rockets, etc. that way than they do from the legal civilian market--you know--the market we're told is inadequately regulated.