Sunday, February 5, 2012

Washington Post Op-ed on Guns to Mexico


Do America's failed gun policies contribute to the terrible violence in Mexico? Alejandro A. Poire Romero makes a compelling case that the answer is yes.

He mentions the extremely high percentage of traced guns at Mexican crime scenes which came from The States, not omitting the key work "traced."

He talks about the need for another Assault Weapons Ban as well as closing the gun-show loophole.

He doesn't shy away from the Fast and Furious scandal at all, but puts it in perfect perspective.

Fast and Furious was a well-intentioned, misguided response to — and not the cause of — the proliferation of illegal guns in Mexico. To stanch that flow, the Obama administration and Congress should heed the pleas of Mr. Poire Romero and his countrymen by reviving the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole that makes it far too easy to sell weapons without a background check. The White House and lawmakers should work to enact a federal firearms trafficking statute and call for stiffer penalties for illegal straw purchases. Lawmakers also should confirm a chief for the ATF and give the beleaguered agency enough money and personnel to fulfill its mission of keeping illegal guns out of the hands of criminals on both sides of the border.
What's your opinion? Does that sound better than the hysterical exaggerations we read on other sites like TTAG and The Sipsey Street Irregulars?

Please leave a comment.

11 comments:

  1. "He mentions the extremely high percentage of traced guns at Mexican crime scenes which came from The States, not omitting the key work 'traced.'"
    While that might seem like a "gotcha", the fact is that a low number of firearms are submitted for trace. According to CENAPI data, 29,824 firearms were seized in MX in 2008. Of those seized, only 7200 were submitted for trace and about 4000 were traced. Of the 4000 traced, 3,480 were traced to U.S. which represents about 12% of firearms seized in MX. So where did the other 26,344 firearms come from?

    "Fast and Furious was a well-intentioned, misguided response to — and not the cause of — the proliferation of illegal guns in Mexico."
    Alright then, let's look at this. If there were 3,840 firearms traced back to the US from MX, and F&F sent 2000.....Ummm, that looks like it might be part of the cause. Now, of course we won't know the real numbers until a couple of years. trace info is from 2008 and F&F info is from 2009.

    "keeping illegal guns out of the hands of criminals on both sides of the border."
    So, allowing legal guns in the hands of criminals is ok?

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    1. About the tricky wording used, I've agreed on a number of occasions that the 90% figure is misleading. I'm willing to agree that the true percentage of guns used in the Mexican wars that came from the US is down around 20%.

      That 20% however is a big number. Whatever the Fast and Furious fuck-up was responsible for is nothing in comparison to the total.

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    2. The 90% figure is nearly accurate, but, like you said, is misleading. It is the 87% of traced firearms (that traced back to a US gun shop) rounded up to 90%.

      The true percentage of firearms from US gun shops is 12.87%. Now, please note that I said gun shops. These are the firearms that were purchased by an individual and then later recovered by MX authorities. They weren't necessarily recovered at a murder or robbery, but also MX citizens (legal US resident aliens) that purchased here legally and illegally brought them into MX for personal use. This 12.87% also includes firearms walked into MX during operation Wide Receiver which were lost by MX authorities and later recovered (over 500 firearms) and possibly operation White Gun (which was about 5 firearms).

      The true number of US guns recovered in MX at crime scenes is much higher, but those were corporate sales to the MX government (police and military) with the approval of the US State Department and the MX government.

      "Whatever the Fast and Furious fuck-up was responsible for is nothing in comparison to the total."
      is nothing compare to the 29K recovered or the 3800 from gun shops?

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  2. The AK-47 is manufactured in other countries, but for a small number of specialty models, and the FN FiveseveN comes from Belgium. Those are popular firearms with the Mexican gangs. That word, traced, is important, since Mexico has many borders, and guns can enter all over and from many parts of the world. In addition, if the Mexicans want to stop the flow from the United States, they can do so easily by guarding their northern border. Of course, that would cut off the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs going our way.

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  3. Mikeb, how about we judge the Obama administration by its actions here? Fast and Furious was Dumb and Spurious, but look at what came shortly after: a directive to report all sales of multiple long guns in southwestern states. Can you understand why we see a potential connection?

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    1. Only if you are making the point for us again that you don't reason well and are paranoid.

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    2. I think that multiple sales reporting is smart business for slowing up the traffickers, regardless of where the guns end up.

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    3. Dog Gone,

      So 9/11 was a massive conspiracy involving many government agencies and foreign powers, but Fast and Furious can't be an attempt to gin up support for more gun control?

      I ask you this since you've yet to express an opinion on 9/11 conspiracies.

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    4. Actually I have expressed an opinion on the 9/11 conspiracies. I believe there's something to them.

      Fast and Furious, on the other hand, was nothing more than a bumblinig attempt by the ATF to do what police often do. The unscrupulous and dishonest gun-rights crowd have turned it into something more.

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    5. I was speaking to Dog Gone here. She claims to care about critical thinking, and yet she lets you get away with 9/11 nonsense.

      Mikeb, you are again showing bias. 9/11 happened during Bush's administration, so it must have been a conspiracy of right wing agents within the government, while Dumb and Spurious happened during Obama's time, so that was well intentioned.

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    6. When and if Mikeb posts what his thoughts are on the 911 potential conspiracy, I will offer a criticism of it.

      I would point out for example that it does appear that Bush was planning to go to war against Iraq prior to 9/11 for example. Perhaps that was the conspiracy he had in mind, the one between Blair and bush and a subset of neocons?

      When he gives me something specific, I'll address it, if I feel like it. I'm free to use my time to address what interests me most, not what you want me to do.

      It is nice to be free.

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