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Subscribe to RSS68,000 guns recovered by Mexican authorities in the past five years have been traced back to the United States, authorities said Friday.
The flood of tens of thousands of weapons underscores complaints from Mexico that the U.S. is responsible for arming the drug cartels plaguing its southern neighbor. Six years of violence between warring cartels have killed more than 47,000 people in Mexico.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released its latest data covering 2007 through 2011. According to ATF, many of the guns seized in Mexico and submitted to ATF for tracing were recovered at the scenes of cartel shootings while others were seized in raids on illegal arms caches. All the recovered weapons were suspected of being used in crimes in Mexico.
At an April 2 North American summit in Washington, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said the U.S. government has not done enough to stop the flow of assault weapons and other guns from the U.S. to Mexico.
Cross-border methamphetamine trade booms amid Mexico's 'war on drugs'
Calderon credited President Barack Obama with making an effort to reduce the gun traffic, but said Obama faces "internal problems ... from a political point of view."
There is Republican opposition in Congress and broad opposition from Republicans and gun-rights advocates elsewhere to a new assault weapons ban or other curbs on gun sales. The Obama administration says it is working to tighten inspections of border checkpoints in the absence of an assault rifle ban that expired before Obama took office.
For more than a year, ATF has been reeling from accusations that some of its agents in Arizona were ordered by superiors to step aside rather than intercept illicit loads of weapons headed for Mexico.
The Justice Department's inspector general and Congress have been looking into the Arizona gun probe, Operation Fast and Furious.
The issue of gun control legislation hasn't been part of the Republican-led probe of Fast and Furious by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The number of all types of ATF-traced firearms manufactured in the U.S. or imported into the U.S. and later recovered in Mexico rose from 11,842 in 2007 to 14,504 in 2011, according to ATF. The figures for U.S.-sourced firearms were 21,035 in 2008; 14,376 for 2009; and 6,404 in 2010. Included in those totals, the number of rifles recovered in Mexico, submitted to ATF for tracing and found to have come from the U.S. rose from 4,885 in 2007 to 8,804 last year.
One killed every half hour in Mexico drug-related violence
Mexican law enforcement officials report that certain types of rifles such as AK variants with detachable magazines are being used more frequently by drug trafficking organizations, ATF said in a news release.
Mexico has provided ATF information on 99,691 guns. ATF determined that the source for 68,161 of the weapons was the U.S, 68 percent of the total. For the remainder, ATF was unable to determine a U.S. source or was unable to trace the request to a country of origin. The 68 percent figure is down from estimates of 90 percent in years past when Mexico was sharing less information with the U.S.
During the Obama administration, ATF has undergone a management shake-up and Attorney General Eric Holder has called Fast and Furious a flawed operation that must never be repeated.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that thorough gun statistics are hard to come by and tricky to interpret.
"The only guns Mexico is going to submit for tracing are guns they know are from the United States, which clearly paints an incomplete picture of the firearms found in the country," Grassley said.
In the Obama administration's efforts to slow the illicit trafficking, gun store owners in Southwestern border states are suing to overturn a requirement that they report to ATF when customers buy multiple high-powered rifles within a consecutive five-day period. To date, the program has been upheld in one federal court. ATF says the reporting requirement, imposed six months ago, has led to 100 criminal investigations and the referral of 30 cases for prosecution involving 100 alleged gun trafficker defendants.
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Mexico should sell the guns back to U.S. firearms dealers and help pay for their battle against the narcotic gangs.
I blame Eric Holder and his pet project "Fast and Furious!"
Rocky, if the guns have been seized since 2006, how can you blame Eric Holder? Let's see Holder's only had the job since February 2009, and Michael Muksey had the office from 2007-2009, before him, our good friend Alberto Gonzales was there from 2005-2007 (is it possible it's his pet project???) and before him John Ashcroft who could have started the project. All of those guys were put in via Bush, so how can you blame Eric Holder for this when it could have been someone from the past who started the program? Explain.
"The number of all types of ATF-traced firearms manufactured in the U.S. or imported into the U.S. and later recovered in Mexico rose from 11,842 in 2007(Muksey or Gonzales) to 14,504 in 2011, according to ATF. The figures for U.S.-sourced firearms were 21,035 in 2008 (Muksey) ; 14,376 for 2009 (Muksey or Holder); and 6,404 in 2010 (Holder). Included in those totals, the number of rifles recovered in Mexico, submitted to ATF for tracing and found to have come from the U.S. rose
from 4,885 in 2007 to 8,804 last year."
Once again, explain who was in office during those years?
Maybe if Mexico really thought there was a real problem they would also start to protect there border. Does anyone actually think this would ever happen? 1
I blame the Arizonians for the most part. They sure bark a lot about illegal immigration but on the other hand they are the nations number one supplier of weapons to the drug cartels in Mexico as well as importers of drugs from these same cartel members. Gas, grass or cash, you want a gun, they'll supply you with one.
"Six years of violence between warring cartels have killed more than 47,000 people in Mexico."
Yo, we only lost about 58,000 during the entire Viet Nam war. Sadly we are letting these people come into our country illegally everyday.
If the ATF is guilty of allowing the guns into Mexico, that caused the deaths of agents from the U.S., then those officials responsible, should be proscecuted. All the way to the top.
The real question is WHY did the ATF allow this?
40,000 new laws were passed last year. Not one of those laws give Americans more freedom.
Those ignorant fools, both those who declare they are in charge Government both sides) and the media for the spin, Mexico wants the boarder open, no strings no checks, they like the drug money coming back in, they like the immigrants to cross and send money back, but they do not like the results. Now blame the US, These mindsets are deadly. The innocent families on both sides pay the price for this political and media self serving spin.
Does anyone understand the problem with statistics? We can make statistics support our point even if they do not.
It is all in the presentation.
Deliberate deception by the ruling class. The cartels get no automatic weapons from the U.S., but get them from Venezuela and other South American countries, as well as Russian and Chinese sources. But our rulers put out the line that we are the source of their misery, when machine guns drive their violence, and our marxist government grifters ignore these weapons. The MSM does not have a clue, even referring to semi-auto as assault weapons, which they are most certainly not. The MSM are in league with this outlaw administration to destroy the Second Amendment and bring about a permanent socialist/communist government.
MSNBC beating the gun control agenda again as a part of Obama's election campaign. Mexican guns along with Martin-Zimmerman lynch circus, and the Remington trigger group "scandal" that was "news" 70 years ago resurfacing again to get guns under the control of Jeopardy champ Rich Cordray's new "Consumer Protection Czardom".....gag me all. Nothing but manufactured DNC talking points.
Get a clue. The trouble with guns in Mexico is Mexico. It is an incompetent, corrupt, racist and discredited oppressive regime.
Reap the whirlwind of open borders, El Presidente.
The arrogance of Calderon lecturing the US on ANYTHING!
I read where a large fraction (1/3?) of Mexico's troops desert every year after training and take with them their issued arms to serve as muscle for the drug cartels. Calderon, Commander Zero (Obama), Holder (Fast and Furious) and Hillary are acting in concert to manufacture a problem that "takes strong action" to correct....gee what could that be? More restrictions on honest free men because crooks and slave masters fear us.
Holder will need to get ATF smuggle more guns into Mexico than this to make it stick.
Dream on. Ain't gonna happen.
It must be election time again.
We need a new concern to divert Americans attention from the depression we have been suffering the past 3 years.
Looks like the "Tail is wagging the dog."
Maybe the Mexican government should clean their own house before demanding the right to meddle in ours.
Cartels have unlimited funds; they can buy weapons from ANYWHERE, as well as purchase an unending supply of crooked Mexican politicians, police officials, and military men.
Their people, their drug dealers, their corruption, THEIR problem.
Mexico has been trying to fight their cartel problems. Many politicians local and national in Mexico have died just because they said something against the cartels, the only one that hasn't gotten killed yet is Calderon. He's fought the cartels as best he could, and now, the people of Mexico are getting tired of seeing violence everywhere. The Mexican government can't solve this on their own, any clean and legit person they employ in the military or police force is usually killed, the others are bribed or forced to comply with the cartels.
Now this problem isn't Mexico's alone. Could you take a guess at where the income of these cartels is coming from?
Hmm, maybe it's from that one country that denies it has anything to do with the cartels. The one who's drug addictions fuel the cartels with limitless amounts of money. But darn I can't think of the name, do you happen to know what that country is?
And 57,000 of the 68,000 were bought with US taxpayers money on President Obama's stimulus fundings used for his program to provide Mexicans with US weapons so he can can claim that Mexicans have US weapons.
The remaining US weapons were imported before the last world war, or were supplied by Nazi insurgents in preparation for invasion of the Western United States by Mexico under Axis Alliance.
Mexican drugs have been pouring into the United States for decades, killing millions of Americans and ruining lives and Mexico does nothing at all to curb this. They wish to blame the firearms bought in America and smuggled into Mexico for this problem. What a joke that is. The Mexican government and the Mexican military and police are where the problem lies because they are all bought and paid for by the cartels. If Mexico or the US really wanted to get rid of the problem it would be so easy....they know where and who the drugs are coming from and we have plenty of bombs and snipers to take care of the problem. These cartels are not mom and pop operations...they are huge and easily spotted. Anyone who wants to see how well the Obama administration has handled the gun smuggling problem should just google "atf fast and furious program" and see what a fail that was.
Why is it the US's problem when Mexico claims that a large number of illegal firearms are taken into Mexico?
I have to believe that it is each country's responsiblity to limit what they allow to come into their own country by policing their own side of the border. It is simple, if you don't want it on your side, it is your responsibility to keep it out.
every weapon has a serial number on it and the vast majority of these weapons have been traced back to the Mexican Government which bought them from the US. No way could all these guns come from the US without the BATFE being alerted. Let Mexico fix it's own problem without taking away more of our civil liberties. No automatic weapons have been traced back to any gun shop here. They are illegal here
But of course the Mexican President believes we need to stop the flow of guns to his country, but he has no responsibility whatsoever in controlling the flow of illegal aliens into our country. Tell him we'll trade him 2 Mexican citizens back for each U.S. gun. There is room for bartering on this arrangement.
Thousands of high powered rifles were traced in the ATF sting operations that allowed them through to Mexico That was a sting operation targeting a handful of dealers along the border, if the thousands of other dealers were monitored of course the numbers are huge. For those stating they doubt that many weapons came from here thats absurd, of course they came from here. What possible reason could a law abiding citizen have for buying more than 1 high powered rifle a week? Any collector buying more would only have to show he still had them.
"What possible reason could a law abiding citizen have for buying more than 1 high powered rifle a week? Any collector buying more would only have to show he still had them."
Let's start with the "high powered rifles"...
Every rifle is "high powered"so stop with the anti-gun talking points.
There are many reasons someone would need to buy more than one new rifle in a week-such as going on a hunting trip,and hunting for game that requires rifles in calibers the person does not currently own.
A person who shoots in competition needs to replace rifles on a regular basis-and has to have a back up for each event-sometimes several back-ups,if they shoot in more than one rifle classification.
Sometimes people decide to change the type of shooting,or hunting they do-both of which require new rifles.
As for collectors-it's none of your buisness how many guns I have in my personal collection,or whether or not I keep them,or trade some to other collectors,or sell a few of them to friends.
Legal gun owners are not the problem-criminals are the problem-you can enact as many new "gun control" laws as you want to-they will do nothing to prevent criminals from getting guns.
"high powered" rifles are very rarely used to commit gun crimes-the Mexican cartels are not getting their guns-which are mostly full-auto-from U.S. gun shops-they get their guns from their own corrupt military and police,and from other central and south American countries-even the L.A. Times has done a series pointing these facts out-yet the anti-gun groups,and the anti-gun media keeps repeating the same lies by using only partial stats.
Legal gun owners commit .008% of the gun crimes,so-called "assault weapons" were never used in more than a very,very small % of gun crimes-which is why the Clinton "assault weapons" ban was allowed to expire-studies done by and/or for congfress,the DOJ,FBI,and BATFE all had the same results-"assault weapons" were never used in more than a very small % of gun crimes.
Like all news reporting they only tell the story that serves the anti gun lobby, how many illeagal guns were captured? 200,000 ? 300,000 won't tells us that will they might make the US portion look small. We don't excpect crimminals to have legal guns. This lame stream media never reports that guns captured here from drug raids are illieagle just guns why's that ?? They want the public to think there not and more gun control is needed.
Swap em'.
For every gun Mexico gives back, we give them 205 slightly used Mexicans.
There is no doubt that a lot of the small arms that are getting through have come from traditional American commercial sources ie the local gun store or some idiot who sold a gun second hand. What distinction is not made is if the firearms in question came from retail outlets or from other sources that diverted them illegally. In 1989 at the start of the assault weapon idiocy after an asssination by narcos in Columbia it was reported the weapons recovered were ar15s. Wrong!!! U.S. military personell on the ground at the time saw the weapons and hit the panic button. They were early m16s marked AR15 with U.S. property stamps from the Vietnam era. Guess where they came from. U.S. sent to Nam abandoned or donated at the end of the war. Vietnam in the late 80s was selling to anyone tons of the old U.S. military equipment everything from sealed helicopter engines to m16s with no questions asked. Several uninformed idiots found themselves in a lot of trouble and ultimately behind bars out millions for violating the very strict 75 Arms Import and Export Control Act law that yes even applies to helicopter parts. These m16s came from you guessed it Vietnam. Yes there are American guns from American retail outlets being smuggled into Mexico by international criminal organizations or their underlings. However the next time a m16/4, m249, m60 or an old m2 shows up or a pile of new Romanian AKM sporters sold by Century turns up have the press do a serial number check if the Mexicans will allow it. They might not for obvious reasons. The ex miiltary stuff can be tracked readily through the U.S. material command as to who got it and when. Then have the BATFE run a check on the AKM sporters being relatively new they are easy to trace. The results I bet will be very very surprising.
The bait and switch crap the Feds tried to pull on one hand and did on another with fast and furious despite repeated assurances to the contrary has left a lot of gun dealers and owners more than slightly leery of doing anything anymore. If you could walk in off the street to the hardware store and buy piles of small arms like shovels it would be one thing but that is not the case. It is time for the laws to be changed so that the average serious gun enthusiast doesn't feel like the feds are always out to get them with some seriously stupid laws that have nothing to do with preventing this mess. It is also time for Mexico to get serious about her own future and change a few things. Even if this means doing away with their guns are for the elite policy and arming the local civillians as several local town councils have asked to do. Vigilantism is worse than corrupt and incompetent law enforcement of this there is no doubt. However, do you think that any American town or commnuity would tolerate Outside criminal elements terrorizing their people. Some tolerate their own as seen in LA, Chicago and other places where the people tolerate the abuse by their own but most of America would not irregardless of their location, race, culture or socio economic status. Mexico needs to pull it's head out of the sand.
Through the activities of NRA leaders, the NRA organization is trading guns for drugs with the Mexican drug lords. Every one of these thousands of guns seized in Mexico, and hundreds of thousands that are still in the hands of the drug gangs, passed through the hands of NRA members. We are allowing this unlawful activity to continue, including the deaths of our own border guards, because the leading terrorists of the Tea Party/GOP are becoming rich doing it. The NRA is responsible for thousands of dead Americans every year, and now we are exporting the evil of these merchants of death to the rest of the world.
What a load of crap!...
occamsedge...
You really should stop smoking that stuff...
The whole idea of coming up with laws to prevent Mexican drug cartels from having guns is absurd. Why not just pass a law that prevents them from having drugs! If all the guns in the US vanished over night these international drug smugglers would get a shipping container of fully automatic AK47s from Bulgaria or some place flown in over night. These guys have millions of dollars that they do not know what to do with. A factory able to turn out 500 assault rifles a day could be set up for the profit they make in a week and this would provide another income stream for the dealers. Mexico is a failed state and we need to direct our efforts to control our borders and not try to keep someone in the US from buying a gun. If I lived on or near the border I would damn sure have one. In fact, I live 1000 miles away from the Mexican border and I have several!
Nothing to add but love all the common sense pro second amendment comments. Good job!
I think a trade program could be worked out. For every illegal alien Mexico keeps in its own country, we'll keep a gun here.
Win/win.
Guns will always be available if one has money. The drug cartels will always have money. Guns come from the US. Guns come from South America. It's just part of life.....and death.
God Bless the Second Amendment.