Mexican Weapon Deception Exposed, Jim Butler

Sangamon County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois

Mexican Weapon Deception Exposed
Jim Butler, President, SCRA
May 2009 GunNews

Fox News was one of the first media sources to expose the lie that 90 percent of the guns used by drug cartels in Mexico have come from the United States.

Not surprisingly, three of the gun hating politicians who parroted this 90 percent claim were Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Dianne Feinstein. All of whom want to see the phony Clinton-Feinstein assault weapon ban on semi-automatic firearms reinstated.

There is just one problem with their 90 percent statistic. It isn't true! In fact, it isn't even close. The fact is only 17 percent of guns found at Mexico crime scenes have been traced to the U.S.

What is true, an ATF spokeswoman told Fox News.com, in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency's assistant director, "is that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the US."

A large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.

"Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market," Matt Allen, special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told FOX News.

83 percent of the guns found at crimes scenes in Mexico could not be traced to the U.S.

The U.S. government has shipped millions of guns to arm military and police departments in Central America over the past 50 years. Thus it isn't surprising that a small percentage of firearms seized by the Mexican government are American-made firearms. According to the Fox News report, about 17 percent of the firearms seized from the drug cartels originated in the United States. Earlier reports claiming that "90 percent" of the drug cartel guns are coming from the U.S. -- were based on tracing data which is often used to deceive the people as to the types of guns used in crime.

So where do the rest of the guns come from?

There are a variety of sources:

The black Market. Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar, with fragmentation grenades from South Korea, AK-47's from China, and shoulder-fired rocket launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet block manufacturers.

Russian crime organizations. Interpol says Russian Mafia groups such as Poldoskaya and Moscow based Solntsevskaya are actively trafficking drugs and arms in Mexico.

South American. During the late 1990's, The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) established a clandestine arms smuggling and drug trafficking partnership with the Tijuana cartel, according to the Federal Research Division report from the Library of Congress.

Asia. According to a 2006 Amnesty International Report, China has provided guns to countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Chinese assault weapons and Korean explosives have been recovered in Mexico.

The Mexican Army. More than 150,000 soldiers deserted in the last six years, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo. Many took their weapons with them, including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle made in Belgium.

Guatemala. U.S. intelligence agencies say traffickers move immigrants, stolen cars, guns and drugs, including most of America's cocaine, along the porous Mexican - Guatemalan border. On March 27, La Hora, Guatemala newspaper, reported that police seized 500 grenades and a load of AK-47's on the border. Police say the cache was transported by a Mexican drug cartel operating out of Txcan, a border town.

So why would the Mexican drug cartel, which last year grossed between $17 billion and $38 billion, bother buying single-shot rifles, and force thousands of unknown "straw" buyers in the U.S. through a government background check, when they can use this vast wealth to buy boatloads of fully automatic M-16's and assault rifles from China, Isreal or South Africa?

This exaggeration of United States "responsibility" for the lawlessness in Mexico extends even beyond the "90 percent falsehood - and many of us believe it was designed to promote more restrictive gun-control laws in the U.S.

So congratulations to Fox News for uncovering the recent slate of deceptive politicians who are trying to generate momentum by deception for a new gun ban.

Jim Butler's Commentaries

Sangamon County Rifle Association Home Page