U.S. Guns Arm Mexican Drug Cartels

Licensed dealers selling high-powered automatic weapons to straw buyers?

Uh, right... Yeah...

All conjecture. There has been no proof that those are straw purchases.

Just like a lot of the other articles on this, they cite ONE guy that said he bought some weapons to sell across the border.

That hardly accounts for the numbers.

They are most likely stolen just like the cars, boats, and airplanes used in these crimes.

Mexico IS right that it's the US's fault, but it's not because of guns. It's because we

a) don't secure our borders properly and
b) don't punish criminals severely enough

I wouldnt take the medias word for it...do they have proof?I for one would like to see proof of this,instead of a possible 'one incident'.

What? you mean not all EBR's are full auto?

High-powered automatic weapons

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BEEEEP wrong answer. Those did not come from any ordinary US dealer or go through a straw purchaser. My guess is they came from some corrupt quartermasters in the Mexican Army. It would be easy enough to trace the SN, but notice how they never ever do that in this articles? Or even show you exactly what automatic weapons supposedly came from stateside? Whatever weapons are coming from US FFL's, they aren't Class III.

More recently, the ATF seized 13 AK-47 rifles Aug. 1 from an alleged straw purchaser in Phoenix, according to Mangan.

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Actual AK-47s? The reporter is either a liar (as most from that rag are) or an idiot (as the remainder are).

And why stick to SoAz?

About 8 months ago, Mexican customs popped an RV from Washington state that was loaded with firearms. By "loaded" I mean a few hundred guns, mostly .22lr and shotguns. Only a handful could be considered anything akin to assault weapons.

However, there have been drug load houses in south Tucson that were raided where dozens of (empty) Ak boxes were found, along with a few that were loaded and ready to go.

And the ease in which they cross into Mexico is a problem that Mexican Customs should solve.

I think I read somewhere that they buy the semi-auto guns and then convert them in Mexico. You know, honestly, this is not our problem. Maybe Mexico should build a fence on it's side to prevent illegal guns from flowing into their side and we can build a fence on our side to prevent illegal drugs from flowing into our side. Then two problems will be solved.

I don't beleive a single thing that MSM broadcasts anymore. Nothing!

Someone buys a gun here and takes it to Mexico. So what. Who cares?

I am sure there is some truth in those stories, but mainly they are propaganda put out by the gun control gangsters and their media puppets as one more attack on the Second Amendment.

"We really don't want to break into your home, kill your family and seize your guns, but we have to do it because the Mexicans have a crime problem."

Jim

So why would I buy a semi-auto AK type in the US, ship it south and spend time and money converting it when I can buy all the REAL AK47s I want to in South America or Central America? Hugo Chavez is no friend of Mexico or the US.
If a Dope Dealer wanted several cases of AKs I'd bet they could get all they want straight from Chineses makers.
And yep, the US Gov't is incapable of sercuring our border. We suffer for it daily.

I'll just add for the record that this was a feature, front-page story in the Sunday edition of the paper.

Thousands dead... civilians? gangsters? If civilian casualties are low enough, I say give the gangs all the guns they want and let them cancel each other out. Build a wall to keep the gangsters out of the US, and decriminalize prostitution and drugs to take away the top two income generators for gangs. Problem solved.

So why would I buy a semi-auto AK type in the US, ship it south and spend time and money converting it when I can buy all the REAL AK47s I want to in South America or Central America?

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Well, apparently it's easier to get them from the US. I'm not talking hypotheticals either.

Thousands dead... civilians? gangsters?

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Some of both, but mostly gangsters, smugglers, etc. Pretty gruesome stuff in many cases, like six severed heads dumped in a town square and dismembered bodies stuffed into metal drums, along with chemicals to decompose them. Mexican news sources have no problem publishing these images, either.

Hmmm... If they are US guns, we'll be able to use them for spares and parts when the druggies drop 'em and run if we ever close in on them.

Woody

So why would I buy a semi-auto AK type in the US, ship it south and spend time and money converting it when I can buy all the REAL AK47s I want to in South America or Central America?

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Much of the drug trade revolves around border towns (Columbus/Palomas, San Diego/Tijuana, Laredo/Nuevo Laredo, El Paso/Juarez). It's quicker to just buy the guns legally here and then convert them across the border as opposed to buy them illegally in South America and then try to smuggle them all the way up.

The border towns are currently ruled by drug cartels; the Arnando Felix, the Gulf Cartel, and one more whose name escapes me. There is effectively NO LAW on the border, so the cartels can pay inspectors to look the other way when a couple of AKs cross the border. Frankly, anyone who's gone into Mexico can tell you that the border guards look like the could care less what you bring in.

Mexico IS right that it's the US's fault, but it's not because of guns. It's because we

a) don't secure our borders properly and
b) don't punish criminals severely enough

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Not quite. These guns are tools of drug traffickers and are used in the drug trade. The only way to fix the problem is by taking away the profit motive by decriminalizing the drugs the .gov disapproves of. Attempts to:

a) secure our borders properly and
b) punish criminals severely enough

will be no more effective now than they were at combating moonshiners and violent organized crime during Prohibition in the 20s. You might as well try to cut down on the violence by outlawing the guns the criminals are using. . .

I was just reading in the Local Paper today where a 7 man crew of Mexicans were breaking into houses and stealing firearms. I guess it's the gun owners fault for them breaking in and stealing them......

Funny how our govt is worried about the integrity of Georgia's or Pakistan's borders while ours are wide open. I think the media has twisted the story to reflect bad on guns as usual. It would be much easier to get guns from Mexico's neighbors to the south, not north.

Yesterday, at a Border Security Conference in El Paso, I heard the director of ATF, Michael Sullivan, cite that of the 10,000 guns found by Mexican authorities involved in crime last year, 7,000 were traced back to the U.S. What was interesting is that he explained most of them were Ar-15s and M4s and were fully automatic. He did not mention Ak-47s or such but did mention the .50 barrett.

My first thought was that straw buying could not supply such a large amount of automatics-->there must be some inside corruption in the military units, ours or Mexican. This military corruption hypothesis was further reinforced by the fact that Ak-47s are not a significant part of the problem, according to ATF. This is puzzling, however, because I read Juarez's news daily, and almost all cartel assassinations in Juarez involve cuernos de chivo (Ak-47s) and the 7.62x39 round. Hmm. Maybe the reporters think that all autos are cuernos de chivo. These assassins are not getting caught, however. Maybe the dumb criminals are using the M4s.

I live on the border, and YES, the guns going to Mexico is our problem too. We have had people in our New Mexican community listed on cartel hit lists. We are more connected in the border area than most think.

We are more connected in the border area than most think.

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Given that your license plates have been printed with "New Mexico USA" for a while now, I think that you may be less connected in the border area than many think. Or at least that's the assumption in some offices in Santa Fe.

Oh gee, you don't think ATF would lie do you?

buy them illegally in South America and then try to smuggle them all the way up.

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They're already moving tons and tons of illegal drugs so adding a few cases of AKs should be no big deal.
As recently as 10 years ago anyone in Central America could buy a real AK and a bandoler of Ammo for $100. Has that changed with Chavez dumping thousands of more AKs into northern South America?

My guess most of the full auto weapons used by the cartels come from weapons we provide for the Mexican military.

I like what "Greg" said about the armed guard post every hundred yards. I would also have humvees with .50 Brownings going by as well, not to mention a good couple of mine fields...

Every time I hear whining without any solution in mind, I keep thinking how the soviets fixed these kind of border problems in an instant, or how thailand and Vietnam enforced their 'stay out of the rainforests' policies.