Mexico's Drug War Bloodbath: Guns from the U.S. Are Destabilizing the Country

[dreamdancer 0]

it's crazy man...

Quote

A minute is all the time that it takes for an employee in one of almost 7,000 gun shops dotting the U.S./Mexico border to accept a wad of cash from an eager customer, fill out a triplicate sales slip, and slide a nice, new Taurus .45 caliber pistol across the counter. Or two, or three, or twenty, as the case may be. Add those handguns to the countless tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of pistols, sniper and assault rifles, semi-automatic machine guns, shield-piercing bullets, grenades, plastic explosives, as well as anti-tank weapons outfitted with self-propelling rockets passing illegally through the hands of drug cartel foot soldiers and assassins. Throw in the array of weapons favored by DEA and CIA agents, Mexican federal police and military units, and other 'drug warriors,' of one sort or another. These are all people who are ready, willing, and able to use violence to get what they want. If it looks like you’ve got a battle on your hands, you do -- the Mexican drug war has hit boiling point.

Mexican authorities have been quite vocal in the past year about the role that the U.S. is playing in the escalation of gun violence in Mexico. Last year, no less than 20,000 weapons were seized in drug-related actions, raids, arrests, and shoot-outs; nearly all of them were sold in the U.S.

Last month, the U.S. government’s own Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, released its policy-shaping “2009 International Narcotics Strategy Report.” As the bureau had to admit, “U.S.-purchased or stolen firearms account for an estimated 95% of Mexico’s drug-related killings.”

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/132120/mexico's_drug_war_bloodbath:_guns_from_the_u.s._are_destabilizing_the_country/

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[DrewEckhardt 0]

It's propaganda man.

Corner gunshops don't sell "grenades, plastic explosives, as well as anti-tank weapons outfitted with self-propelling rockets"

Just legalize drugs and remove the profit motive for the turf wars.

[ordie1 0]

Keep them out of the country and they won't be able to buy or steal guns. Sounds like a good solution to me.

[AggieDave 6]

Quote

It's propaganda man.

Corner gunshops don't sell "grenades, plastic explosives, as well as anti-tank weapons outfitted with self-propelling rockets"

That and the numbers used to push this propaganda was based on another study that was also discussed on DZ.com a while back. The short answer is that the 95% number was given because those were weapons found/used in crimes that the Mexican authorities knew could be traced using the Texas/US TCIC/NCIC database. So of the weapons that they thought would trace in the database, 5% didn't return. The 95% number accounts for somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-10%of the total number of weapons used in violent crime during the period used for the study.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[rushmc 23]

If the flow of illeagals stops then they would not be taking our guns back with them


sheeesh

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[lawrocket 3]

So, you see the problem as American guns instead of the large numbers of people who are killing each other over drug product to send to the US. It's not the American lust for drugs. It's not the Mexican lust for money or the desire to send the drugs here. Not American laws that make the drug business worth the bloodbaths.

Nope. American guns are the problem. Isn't that like blaming firearm manufacturers for the Stalin's purges? "All it took was a few seconds to aim the pistol and fire into the brain."

Google William Bennett - the former US "Drug Czar." He did the same thing you and alternet do - instead of working on the issue of the drugs, he focused on the issue of guns and let them kill themselves and each other off. Once crack users were dying off in droves, he took credit for the reduction.

You are far more conservative Republican than I would have imagined - copying Bill Bennett's strategy.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[futuredivot 0]

Issue guns to the deportees and they'll be fewer people to become illegals.





tongue in cheek notice to those of you hyper offended.

You are only as strong as the prey you devour

[rushmc 23]

Quote

Issue guns to the deportees and they'll be fewer people to become illegals.





tongue in cheek notice to those of you hyper offended.

better solution than mine!

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[winsor 236]

Spoons from Denmark are making Rosie O'Donnell fat!

[futuredivot 0]

Quote

Spoons from Denmark are making Rosie O'Donnell fat!

Why would anyone from Denmark want to spoon with Rosie?

You are only as strong as the prey you devour

[Andy9o8 2]

Quote

Keep them out of the country and they won't be able to buy or steal guns. Sounds like a good solution to me.

That's naive. One way or another, contraband will always flow into a country where the consumer demand exists. Just as there are plenty of Mexicans lining up to feed Americans' demand for drugs, there are plenty of Americans who will be more than happy to feed Mexicans' demand for guns. Gun-running is a centuries-old trade. And the harder it is to get the guns, the higher the price, and thus the more lucrative the trade. If you make it harder for Mexicans to come to the US and get guns, Americans will step right in to do whatever it takes to get the guns to Mexico.

[skybill 22]

Quote

it's crazy man...

Quote

A minute is all the time that it takes for an employee in one of almost 7,000 gun shops dotting the U.S./Mexico border to accept a wad of cash from an eager customer, fill out a triplicate sales slip, and slide a nice, new Taurus .45 caliber pistol across the counter. Or two, or three, or twenty, as the case may be. Add those handguns to the countless tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of pistols, sniper and assault rifles, semi-automatic machine guns, shield-piercing bullets, grenades, plastic explosives, as well as anti-tank weapons outfitted with self-propelling rockets passing illegally through the hands of drug cartel foot soldiers and assassins. Throw in the array of weapons favored by DEA and CIA agents, Mexican federal police and military units, and other 'drug warriors,' of one sort or another. These are all people who are ready, willing, and able to use violence to get what they want. If it looks like you’ve got a battle on your hands, you do -- the Mexican drug war has hit boiling point.

Mexican authorities have been quite vocal in the past year about the role that the U.S. is playing in the escalation of gun violence in Mexico. Last year, no less than 20,000 weapons were seized in drug-related actions, raids, arrests, and shoot-outs; nearly all of them were sold in the U.S.

Last month, the U.S. government’s own Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, released its policy-shaping “2009 International Narcotics Strategy Report.” As the bureau had to admit, “U.S.-purchased or stolen firearms account for an estimated 95% of Mexico’s drug-related killings.”

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/132120/mexico's_drug_war_bloodbath:_guns_from_the_u.s._are_destabilizing_the_country/

Hi dd,
Like, whos's the Wholesaler to the border gun shops for the plastic explosives, armour piercing bullets and rocket propelled grenade launchers?? Geez, been to bunches of gun shops and gun shows and no dice!! Guess I have to go to South Texas or AZ to find 'em!! What a racket!! I'm in the wrong business, I gotta get some of that!! Big dollars to be made supplying over the counter weapons and explosives to mex drug cartels from right here in the good old US of A!!!! Ya' gotta love it!!!

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

[JohnRich 4]

Damn those Americans! If they would just disarm themselves, then all those Mexican drug lords would become harmless little choir boys!

[kawisixer01 0]

It's propaganda driven bullshit. The mexican government would love nothing more than to oppress the US people by convincing our own government to take away our rights. There has been just as much reporting showing that Mexico's claims are false. The weapons that did originate from the US (only 17% accroding to one source) were: #1 STOLEN from a US citizen in a burglary or other property crime. #2 were mil spec weapons that the US gave or sold to Mexico for the "war on drugs". Mil spec weapons that the average US citizen could not get their hands on, and those that can would NEVER just sell them off to some punk from south of the boarder. more likely they came from a corrupt source in Mexico after they got their through war on drugs appropriations.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/02/myth-percent-small-fraction-guns-mexico-come/

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/04/barack-obama-gun.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+topoftheticket+(Top+of+the+Ticket)

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=5680

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_12366467?source=pkg

[LongWayToFall 0]

All the data I heard was saying that the majority of weapons are coming from the south, many of them fully automatic (not owned by citizens).

Think about it, you, as a person interested in selling weapons to mexico, buy a bunch and just sell them? Hell no. You would never in your right mind have a gun with a serial number on it in your name, going to a known criminal. So, you would remove the serial number, making it impossible to trace. This fact alone blows your statistics right out of the water, unless the weapons are stolen, in which case it isn't our fault anyways (outside of properly locking your weapons).