Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Mexican Radio

You've been reading the endless spin on Mexican drug cartels...that they're on the verge of overwhelming the Mexican government — such as it is —  with hardware its soldiers picked up from the Wal-Mart in Galveston. If you're still have trouble gasping this, here's a quick, antigun round-up from the wire
Tom Diaz, an analyst at the Violence Policy Center, a gun control group, said cartels use military-style weapons such as the Armalite AR-50, a .50-caliber sniper rifle.
He brought one to a recent congressional hearing — with the help of two police officers — and said he found the weapon on the Internet, bought it for $3,200 from a Maryland "kitchen table" dealer and had it registered in the District of Columbia, all in about six hours.
Semiautomatic rifles used by the cartels are imported legally into the U.S. as "sporting" weapons, a policy that was stopped for years but revived under President George W. Bush. The government could stop importation of those weapons under the 1968 Gun Control Act and thus keep them from winding up in Mexico, Diaz said.

Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., who chaired a hearing on guns going to Mexico, said he is not seeking widespread gun control but Congress must do something.
Of course, it's all a lie...the cartels are, indeed, an army with real, full-auto "assault" weapons, antitank rockets, grenades, etc. which, unless the Galveston Wal-Mart is one of heck of a place they got from the usual suspects, the military arms bazaars that dot the Third World like pockmarks on El Generale's face.

The point of the exercise is spin, trying to find something — anything — the antigun lobby can get traction on. Tom Diaz would appear before Congress dragging his grandmother's entrails if he thought it would allow him to continue to be a "player" and making the big bucks in D.C.

But maybe let's think about Mexico for a moment. In fact, here's a quiz...how many rights should Americans be willing to give up to help protect a neighbor state? Okay, how about a different example than Our Friends to the South, maybe Our Friends to the North? 

If you've been following the news over the last year or so, Canada's not crazy about this wild-and-crazy free speech stuff, especially if it offends Muslims, which is why best-selling author Mark Steyn got charged with "hate speech" in Canada for his wildly poplar book AMERICA ALONE, which speculated that Europe, including England, would be Islamic countries within 20 years if for no other reason that demographics. So the Canadians, tired of the endless, unregulated speech pouring over the border from the south, petition the United States government to place strict regulation on speech, lest it slip over the border and annoy the LeBatts crowd, maybe licensing and strictly monitoring connections to the Internet, prior restraint of radio and television broadcasts to give the U.S. government a chance to make sure the content is Canada A-Okay, etc.

Should we do that to help our Poor Cold Brothers and Sisters?

Sounds pretty stupid, doesn't it? In fact, the answer to both Mexico and our hypothetical Canadian situation is the same: Tough nuggies (or, perhaps for the Montrealers, touche nougat).


 




21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Border security could, and should be responsible for making sure firearms do not illegally cross national boundaries. Of course... we'd need border security for that to work. It's a real shame that some would ignore border security and at the same time constrict around the rights of Americans in the name of helping other countries. Of course its corruption. Common sense no longer prevails.

Anonymous said...

I concur. the mushroom

Laura said...

to the first anonymous poster - common sense isn't all that common.

Anonymous said...

"he found the weapon on the Internet, bought it for $3,200 from a Maryland "kitchen table" dealer and had it registered in the District of Columbia, all in about six hours.

So a legally purchased weapon through an FFL is bad? Wait...doesn't Diaz HAVE an FFL?

Screw off Tommy boy.

I wonder if the dealer has a 15,000 sq ft brick & mortar store. If he did though, I'm sure TD would be honest about it. Is he going to keep it or was it a straw purchase?
Freaking scumbag bastard is what pops into my head anytime Tom Diaz' name is mentioned.

"but Congress must do something"

Oh yes! They must do something!
After all, they are the absolute best, most honest people we can come up with to lead us. They look so good on TV during the campaigns.
It's for the children, or the crooked Mexican gov or to keep the drug cartels safe... or maybe it's just for CONTROL.

Close the damn border to stop the invasion from the south and maybe then we can talk about the REAL problem in our country - GANGS.

Anonymous said...

Sad that this is even a topic...I recieved an email response from Sen Mikulski(D-Md) that contradicts the hell out of itself. First she (her staffer)says that there are to many guns on the street and we need "common sense gun laws" (party line BS) then in the next sentence says that the Cogress should not be regulating firearms, that the state/local governments should be. The Dems can't even get it right with themselves but the American people is falling for it.

Unknown said...

Um, how would import regulations from the Clinton administration stop a drug dealer from smuggling a rifle made in the US into Mexico? That doesn't make sense at all. Armalite is a US company.
Anyone who thinks lax US laws are allowing Mexican drug cartels to get machine guns and grenades is completely uneducated. I guess that doesn't exclude them from the media, as long as they can read what's put in front of them.

Anonymous said...

Quote from "PistolPete";
"Anyone who thinks lax US laws are allowing Mexican drug cartels to get machine guns and grenades is completely uneducated."

You just summed up about 95% of Congress.
Yes American weapons are getting to the drug cartels. The fastest and easiest way to stop that flow would be for CONGRESS to CANCEL all military aid to the Mexican Govt. No more corrupt Mex. politicians selling Govt. stocks, no more deserters taking American made weapons when they switch sides. Then the cartels will have to switch to AK's and RPG's from China and Central America. Oh, I forgot, they are already using those.
Tom Bogan

Anonymous said...

It is against Mexican law to bring guns into the country and everbody knows that laws stop crininals from doing anything against the law. Problem solved.

Whipster said...

This can be turned around into a pro-gun argument pretty quickly...

I keep hearing about how Mexico, with its "tough" gun laws, has a gun violence problem - yet here in the US, with our "lax" gun laws, we have no such out-of-control gun violence.

So - the logical answer is that Mexico should adopt our laws, and thereby achieve a similarly low violent crime rate.

It's idiotic to adapt the policies of a clearly failing nation and apply them to the US, on the grounds that if we all have the same bad laws, the problem will finally go away.

Anonymous said...

95% of mexican cartel guns come from the US??? I thought it was 90% of mexican guns traced by BAFTE come from the US. Those are two totally different things. BAFTE only traces a select few of the mexican guns, specifically they trace guns that they have reason to suspect are coming from America. I wanted to email the author about this poor reporting but I can't find her contact information. Michael, is this something you would be willing to challenge her about?

Anonymous said...

It's ridiculously illogical to think that organized Mexican drug gangs with millions of dollars in cash in their hands would bother with the hassles of smuggling semi-auto firearms from the US in the quantities they'd get from onesy twosy purchases from FFLs.

Remember back in May 1996 the San Francisco office of BATFE confiscated 2000 full rock 'n' roll, real deal Polytech AK47s from a Chinese ship, the news story at the time claimed they were headed for criminal gangs in the US. Now think about the corruption in the Mexican government and military, and tell me who in their right mind doesn't think that the Mexican drug gangs don't have an even easier open pipeline to the same stuff from China and Russian imports from Central America.

Anonymous said...

The Mayor of San Diego has been quoted as saying 90% of the firearms in question are coming from California.


CALIFORNIA???????

Are you kidding me?

I want to see serial numbers. Pretty sure they're going to point somewhere other than a Wal-Mart in Galveston.

Anonymous said...

I am wondering how many of these "smuggled guns" into Mexico came from the BATFE ?

How many times have you read articles about some terrorist buying missiles, explosives or other such things. Then either later in the article or during the trial, it turns out that the gov't SOLD the stuff to the BG in a sting operation. The BG NEVER had access to the weapons. The BG never even had the idea of getting the weapons until the BATFE came to them with it.

Would it be too much of a stretch to think that the BATFE is trying to do a little self protective salting? It wouldn't surprise me.

Bob G. said...

IT makes me think, when you can find guns from Stoeger and even S&W being made in Brazil or Argentina.
Cripes, even the Springfield 1911 is made south of the border.
FAL ,Taurus, and SO many others are made THERE...not HERE.

If your weapon is not stamped MADE IN AMERICA..it probably isn't.

It's little wonder the BATFE "thinks" (erroneously) these weapons come FROM the USA.
Hell, I'd love to see the IMPORT manifests for these S.A. countries.
Bet'cha THAT would revfeal a LOT of the problem.

But that's not MY opinion...check it our for yourselves.
The liberal gun-snatchers are (once again) looking for EXCUSES to wrest firearms from law-abiding U.S. citizens, when they SHOULD be looking at the REAL source of the problem south of the border...which is:
SOUTH of our border.

And THAT is common sense (and truth) you can believe in.

Good post.

Anonymous said...

Has one crime of robbery or murder ever happened with a .50BMG in the USA?

Then why the histeria? Oh yeah, it's just political hype/spin with no factual background - again!

It's already against "the Law" to export guns to Mexico, so what would passing more "laws" accomplish? Oh yeah, it would make it harder for "law abiding" Americans to own firearms - The actual purpose.

Anonymous said...

Anti-gun Canadian politicians have been whining for years that the US should tighten their gun laws to stem the flow of illegally smuggled handguns into Canada.

Ha!

RSR

Anonymous said...

Michael, 20 to 25 years ago we got an order from some government agency in Quebec. It demanded that when we filled the order, all product instructions be in French, correspondence in French, prices converted to Canadian $ and all sorts of stupid things. Frank Brownell wrote across the front, "Are You Kidding?" and mailed it back. Never heard from them, one way or the other. Larry Weeks

Anonymous said...

If the Mexican and US governments wanted to stop the illegal importation of firearms to Mexico, they could try tracking down the serial numbers of recovered firearms to the original owners.
The reason they don't is that in most cases the original owners are the Mexican and US governments.

Overload in Colorado said...

...and the USA government doesn't have a national database of weapon serial numbers.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately there is a large supply of weapons and ammunition coming from Texas into Mexico. The mules that bring drugs north are indeed carrying guns/ammunition when going south. A lot of the straw buyers are connected directly to the cartels. AA good percentage of the mules/straw purchasers are females also. They are well paid with both money and narcotics for personal use. Of course when they are actually caught the straw buyers are given minimal sentences even though they are in the cartel organization. There was one case here in Texas where a gentleman(former Fed IIRC) was caught smuggling 25 kilos of cocaine and was only prosecuted on weapons charges by the Feds.Unfortunately the law enforcement corruption on the US side IS LITTLE BETTER then on the Mexican side. There have been NUMEROUS cases of BP and former Federal LEO's caught smuggling guns and drugs.

The true size of the drug cartel militias would stagger the American public. The Feds have kept the American public in the dark for too long regarding the true size of the Gulf and Sinoloa cartels in the US for political reasons which aren't hard to fathom. The cartels have had to resort to buying semiautos and converting them because they are forced to buy such a large quantity of weapons and ammunition. It suits them to buy in the north because their assets have to go both ways anyways. This of course merely points out how porous, corrupt and ineffective the current border situation is.

BTW it is more likely that they are buying their ammo at Academy than Wally World, although for the last three months there has been next to nothing for anyone to buy.


CCD

Anonymous said...

Here is a good example of Federal LEO corruption on the border.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/Border_Patrol_agent_drew_map_for_smugglers.html

"BROWNSVILLE — A former Border Patrol agent was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in federal prison for helping drug smugglers move a 44-pound cocaine load.

Prosecutors showed that 30-year-old Leonel Morales, of Zapata County, took $9,000 in exchange for telling drug smugglers how to avoid sensors and drawing a map of the best routes for shepherding drugs through the county. He also bragged he could keep other Border Patrol agents out of the way.

Morales made the drug smuggling deal during the summer of 2008, unaware he was being recorded. He pleaded guilty to bribery in January. The sentencing judge in Laredo also ordered him to pay an $11,000 fine."

CCD