NRA Assists Mexican Drug Cartels
Once again,
WaPo accidentally commits journalism:
No other state has produced more guns seized by police in the brutal Mexican drug wars than Texas. In the Lone Star State, no other city has more guns linked to Mexican crime scenes than Houston. And in the Texas oil town, no single independent dealer stands out more for selling guns traced from south of the border than Bill Carter
U.S. gun dealers with the most firearms traced over the past four years
A decade ago, politicians and the press routinely reported on gun stores across the nation that had the most traces for firearms recovered by police. In 2003, under pressure from the gun lobby, Congress passed a law that hid from public view the government database that contained the gun tracing information.
Who cares? If Mexico didn't have silly gun laws, then they couldn't be broken by Mexican's illegally importing guns from other countries.
ReplyDeleteImporting The Bible is illegal in China though I bet most copies could be traced back to a couple of U.S. printers? Maybe you would ban the Bible here because they are illegal in China. Or let's just ban beer since it is illegal in Pakistan.
Those guns are legal products here. Just because some third world nation that can't contain their own criminal class has trouble enforcing their own laws is no reason to do anything here.
Bacon is illegal in Saudi Arabia--I'm enjoying some right now and I could care less if my eating Bacon in Ohio pisses of some bureaucrat in the Saudi government.
FWM: You shouldn't drink and comment, FWM.
ReplyDeleteYour basic 'point' is akin to saying that if you can't stop rape--why not make rape legal.
Here's why it's a problem: instability on or near our borders tends to cross our borders. One of the reasons for illegal immigration--aside from jobs--is security. Nobody wants to live in a war zone.
Another problem is that instability has a nasty tendency to give rise to governments and regimes that aren't so friendly to democracies.
But, hey, as long as you have your gunloonery, it's no problem, right?
I care. I don't care to hear about Mexican journalists and politicians being assassinated. I don't care to hear about men being lined up gangland-style against a wall in front of their families and gunned down by a cartel firing squad. Why does the United States bear any responsibility for this whatsoever?
ReplyDeleteTwo reasons. Demand for illegal drugs and marijuana. A southward flow of munitions. The whole thing is on us. The stain of guilt. We're hurting average Mexicans and contributing to the stagnation of their economy. We don't really feel the pain north of the border. We bitch and moan about the cost of incarceration. How illegal immigration is ruining our cities. A handful of people care about the illegal flow of arms. We miss going down to Tijuana and Baja. Nobody really gives a damn about the human cost.
Let me take you for a little trip down memory lane since you came of age in the cocaine era. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, drug smuggling was a nice little black market. Small-time guys went down to Mexico, Costa Rica, Columbia and Peru to score some dope for their friends and customers. Nobody was really getting hurt. It's a big fucking business now with some pretty scary players, both big and small.
It's the "silly" drug laws in the U.S. and our view from the sphincter philosophy that have brought about this mess. Lack of control over the flow of arms is a big part of it. The other side of the coin is our insatiable demand for hedonisitic drugs and our short-sighted and hypocritical drug policy.
Drug cartels have aggressively turned to the United States because Mexico severely restricts gun ownership. Following gunrunning paths that have been in place for 50 years, firearms cross the border and end up in the hands of criminals as well as ordinary citizens seeking protection.
ReplyDeleteThere is some accidental journalism right there. They weren't supposed to mention that last part.
Good points Flying Junior. I think FWM's frequent remarks along the lines of not caring are callous and self serving. I like your view better. We're responsible for the drugs coming in and we're responsible for the guns going out. And if you want to narrow that down a bit, gun rights supporters are responsible for the second thing and drug users are responsible for the first.
ReplyDeleteI happen to be pretty clean in this deal.
I’d proudly be responsible for being a part of ordinary citizens seeking protection. As it stands, I have nothing to do with that either.
ReplyDeleteIt's cut and dry.
ReplyDeleteIf they didn't have the guns, then they wouldn't be able to deal in drugs. Simple. As. That.
I fail to see any other reasoning.
Flying Junior, people in the US see the poverty in Mexico in more than just having people sell drugs: there is the problem with illegal immigration.
ReplyDeleteOf course, people in the US would rather pay an illegal immigrant a sub-minimum or minimum wage rather than hire a US citizen at full price.
Like the gun problem, people in the US choose to look the other way.
And the real problem is that no one wants to address the issues. Instead they choose to avoid the issue altogether.
As none of my dozens of guns have ever hurt anyone, or even crossed illegally into Mexico for that matter, I happen to be pretty clean in this deal, too, Mike.
ReplyDeleteI categorically refuse to accept any responsibility whatsoever for the actions of criminals in this country or any other.
But, Colin, what if the laws you support, or the lack thereof, allows certain things to happen. Aren't you at least a little responsible for that?
ReplyDeleteNo law that I support, nor action taken by me, contributes in any way whatsoever to the criminal misuse of machine guns, rocket launchers and grenades by the private drug armies in Mexico. End the war on drugs and you will end the violence in Mexico.
ReplyDelete