Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Cartel Grenades

MSNBC reports on the newest concern to surface in the never-ending Mexican Drug Cartel violence on the border.

It was a scenario U.S. law enforcement had long feared: A fragmentation grenade from Mexico's bloody drug war tossed into a public place.

Only the grenade thrower's bumbling prevented bloodshed in a south Texas bar — he neglected to pull a second safety clasp. But the act was proof that one of the deadliest weapons in Mexico's drug battle is a real threat to the U.S., and investigators are stepping up efforts to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Besides the mistake made by the attacker, which prevented a disaster, there was an impressive act of heroism on the part of an off-duty police officer. After the grenade bounced off the floor and landed on a pool table, he "picked it up and threw it back out the door. No one was hurt, no arrests were made, and authorities are divided about whether the targets were rival gang members or off-duty police officers."

The hand grenade used in this failed attack was identified a having come from the same batch of weapons that were used in two other attacks, in October at the U.S. consulate in Monterrey, Mexico, and at a television station in early January in the same city. The grenade thrown at the consulate failed to explode also, and no one was injured when the grenade hit the Televisa network's studio as it aired its nightly newscast.

But all three grenades were manufactured at the same time and place, and were at one point together in the same batch from South Korea. Their manufacture date was unavailable.


The immediate source of these weapons is the black market which flourished after Central America's civil wars. Some are brought in by weapons smugglers. Others are diverted from the region's militaries: In April, Guatemala seized 563 grenades after a shootout with Mexican drug cartel members, and officials later determined the grenades came from Guatemalan military bases.

The article mentions that the United States and South Korea are the biggest producers of grenades found in Mexico. I couldn't help but wonder why they're not claiming 90% of the grenades have been traced back to the U.S. I guess that's because South Korea has a big piece of the action.

ATF officials said the United States keeps tight controls over its own grenade inventories and that it knows of no grenades recovered in Mexico that were taken directly from American military supplies.

What do you think of that? Wouldn't that be similar to that lawsuit against Glock.

They claimed that the manufacturers deliberately made more guns than the legitimate market could support and sold them through channels that would reach a "secondary market" of private and under-the-table transactions.

Although the lawsuit was unsuccessful, it sounded quite plausible to me. In a similar way, American grenade manufacturers are producing far more than we need for our own military, and shipping their product out to unstable Central American Countries in spite of the clear probability that many will end up in the Mexican Drug War. And, just like the Glock people, the grenade producers shrug their shoulders and say it's not their problem, they certainly can't be held responsible for what happens to their product down the line.

What's your opinion? Is that how it goes? Are you all right with it?

Please leave a comment.

6 comments:

  1. mikeb,

    You know so little about the arms business yet you spout off as if you had authority.

    In a similar way, American grenade manufacturers are producing far more than we need for our own military, and shipping their product out to unstable Central American Countries in spite of the clear probability that many will end up in the Mexican Drug War.

    If there is one thing that is more regulated than gun sales in America, it is arms sales to foreign countries. If I start up a grenade manufacturing business, I need somewhere to sell my product. In the US, there are only a few buyers of grenades: the US military and some law enforcement agencies. I cannot go and sell grenades to any Tom, Dick, or Harry that comes into my shop (here's a chore for you, find one grenade shop in the US that you can walk into as a private citizen just to look at the merchandise). That would be illegal (which means it is already against the law, no further law is needed).

    So pretend that this year, I decided to run an extra large batch, unfortunately the US hasn't been using any of them so I want to sell them to another country. What do I do? Just call up my friend Pablo in El Salvador and fedex them? No, that would also be illegal. You would need to get an export license. Then you would need to have the sale approved through the State Department and the Department of Defense, and it would also have to be approved through whatever country you are selling it to.

    If your plan is to never sell weapons to countries that may become unstable (sort of like not allowing people who may become unstable to get guns) then don't go whining and complaining when there is all sorts of bloodshed and carnage in the world.

    Throughout our history we have taken sides. Sometimes that means that we chose to support the lessor of two evils. Case in point Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. Another case in point the Soviet Union during WWII. Were we always right? Impossible to say. The consequences of not supporting the lessor of two evils can only be speculated. However, we have seen what happens when we stand back and do nothing: Cambodia, Eastern Europe, Rwanda, Somalia, etc.

    Is it distasteful to know that the weapons we sell may be used against us in the future? Yeah. But life isn't a bed of roses.

    Turn the tables back on yourself for a moment. Do you support suing car manufactures whenever someone gets in an accident?
    Do you support suing Louisville slugger when someone is beaten with a baseball bat?
    Do you support suing the Zippo company when someone is careless with their lighter and their house burns down?

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  2. I was going to leave a comment but there is nothing I could add that Reputo hasn't already said. Good post Reputo.

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  3. MikeB,

    Should companies be accused of helping the black market because they make more drugs than can be used NOW by the USA market?

    Should companies be accused of helping the black market because they make more knives than can be bought in an average year by people? England seems to have a major problem with knives....are we arming people in England?

    How about the ammo companies? Many people considered them to be 'overproducing' and contributing the problems you say...yet when there was a run on ammo...they didn't have enough. What's up with that?

    Most businesses produce more than can be consumed during 'normal' times so they have an inventory. This is standard business practices.

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  4. Reputo asked, "Turn the tables back on yourself for a moment. Do you support suing car manufactures whenever someone gets in an accident?
    Do you support suing Louisville slugger when someone is beaten with a baseball bat?
    Do you support suing the Zippo company when someone is careless with their lighter and their house burns down?"


    Yes, sometimes.
    No
    No

    What about tobacco companies? Don't we all agree now that they did some tricky shit back, I don't know when, in the 40s or 50s, by suppressing information about nicotine?

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  5. So are you trying to say that the gun companies are supressing scientific evidence that being shot can result in death?

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  6. Reputo, You got a good sense o' humor on ya.

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