How many US guns are going into Mexico?

[wahchintonka48]

How many American guns are in fact headed south to the Mexican cartels? If prominent Democrats are to be believed, nearly all of them. Thus, according to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, “70% of the weapons in the hands of the drug cartels are coming from the U.S.” Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who contends that restricting gun availability in the U.S. would help prevent violence in Mexico, cites an even higher figure of 90%. (Notably, Feinstein got a concealed carry permit for herself and once vowed to defend herself from a terror group called the New World Liberation Front by stating that if its members tried to harm her, she “was going to take them with me.”) Not to be outdone, Nita Lowey, the far-Left congresswoman from New York, states that fully 97% of all weapons find their way to Mexico via the U.S. Those are indeed staggering numbers. But there is reason to doubt their accuracy.

William Hoover, assistant director of field operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, argues that no such volume of American-made weapons are headed south. Says Hoover, “The investigations we have, that we see, for firearms flowing across the border don’t show us individuals taking thousands of guns a day or at a time flowing into Mexico.” His claim is buttressed by the fact that Mexican authorities have refused to provide U.S. law-enforcement officials with the serial numbers of weapons confiscated from drug cartel members—a likely indicator that the weapons were obtained not from American gun shops but rather from illegitimate sources elsewhere.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/hillary-clinton-s-assault-on-the-second-amendment

It's actually closer to - of all the traceable weapons Mexican authorities have recovered, 17% of all the traceable weapons can be traced back to the US. The rest are coming from other places. They probably come from China. Norinco Type 56. Which is the same weapon used by child soldiers in Africa. Last time I checked, these guns don't come from the United States because it's been illegal to import them since 1994.

[artek57]

The GAO has already reported that most guns seized in Mexico , from cartels or anyone else, have not originated in the United States . For example, GAO noted, "In 2008, of the almost 30,000 firearms that the Mexican Attorney Generals office said were seized, only around 7,200, or approximately a quarter, were submitted to ATF for tracing, and GAO noted only 90% of them could have been sold in the US. That is where the gun haters get their 90% from, and they fail to tell people that the 90% is only the firearms that were submitted to ATF for tracing. The other 22,800 firearms were not submitted for tracing, presumably in many cases because their markings indicated that they were not traceable to the U.S. So that makes only 6500 of all the 23,520 firearms that the Mexican government seized in 2008 came from the US.


One thing is sure, however: Americans have greater access to U.S. guns than does anyone in Mexico , and our murder rates pales in comparison to those of our southern neighbor. For example, the murder rate of Juarez Mexico is nearly 100 times higher than that of El Paso, which is just across the border from El Paso with only a river between them. If anything, that's a criticizes Mexican laws, which prohibit honest people from having guns with which to protect themselves from their scumbag criminals.

[fychan97]

A fully automatic AK 47 cost $10 dollars in the Middle East. In eastern Europe any machine gun can be had for $50.

Do you really think that the narco terrorists are really buying US hunting rifles in large numbers.

Regardless whether drug dealers in Mexico are buying weapons illegally or that New Yorkers are buying guns in the South it does not give anyone license to violate my natural rights.

Why not arm your citizens and make them safe.

[delron]

A fully automatic AK 47 cost $10 dollars in the Middle East. In eastern Europe any machine gun can be had for $50.

Do you really think that the narco terrorists are really buying US hunting rifles in large numbers.

Regardless whether drug dealers in Mexico are buying weapons illegally or that New Yorkers are buying guns in the South it does not give anyone license to violate my natural rights.

Why not arm your citizens and make them safe.

I am unable to answer your question directly, however statistics have long been used by almost every side of every political argument to bolster their case.
everything from the size of a massacre, disease, immigration, pollution, child abuse, national debt, military contracts. population etc etc etc,
The manipulation of statistics is a pandemic affecting 99.9% of every political argument!

[arne33]

The US does not produce full auto varients of AK's or other Soviet Block armaments.
The cartels are getting US produced handguns but not the heavy stuff.
Close the Damned Border!!

[artzai]

Janet is total moran and compulsive liar!

[colten]

Janet is total moran and compulsive liar!

Pretty-much just the ones the BATFE is sending.

[arrigo]

There is a big demand for guns in Mexico so it is really their fault and they should give us money to put a stop to it

[tahmelapachme33]

Of course they get guns from America! There country has nothing to offer except their beautiful Coast line, that they could develop and attract tourists, if we were so afraid of the "little value they put on human life". Crazy Mexico, and I hear we are their 2nd source of income. We give them money and then the illegals who come here to work, send home most of the money they make, and not contribute to our economy. And I love how they keep immigrants from their southern boarder out of Mexico, they shoot them. I think we need to do that. Go home and stay home!

[artek57]

Clearly the number of guns you buy in one visit to a gun shop is the problem. If these traffickers were forced to buy one at a time with a waiting period between purchases there would be a much bigger paper trail.