Thank you Kurt Hofmann for ferreting out the dirty little secret.
It has long been enormously popular in gun prohibitionist circles to blame Mexican drug war violence on the U.S. commercial gun market (and enormously unpopular in those same circles to point out the role played by the Justice Department's "Project Gunwalker"--itself seemingly intended to implicate gun dealers and gun shows in the U.S.). Now, though, it is becoming more and more difficult to justify blaming American civilian firearms commerce. With the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosvies (BATFE), with full knowledge and approval of top DoJ officials (at least) "walking" thousands of guns into Mexico, and with one (Joyce Foundation-funded) study finding only about 3,000 U.S.-marketed guns seized in Mexico over the last four years, there wouldn't seem to be much room to blame America's supposedly "lax gun laws."
And now, there's even less. An article Wednesday in IHS Global Insights/Jane's Defence (subscription required), titled "US Claims Central American Arsenals Are Supplying Mexican Drug Cartels," provides some some perhaps startling numbers.
According to [U.S. Southern Command head, U.S. Airforce General Douglas] Fraser in testimony to the Senate, more than 50% of military grade weaponry flowing through the region originated from Central American arsenals, with the total quantity in circulation estimated at between 45 million and 80 million firearms.
The article makes no bones about what this means:
Firstly, they challenge the working assumption of Mexican authorities that around 80-90% of illegal firearms in the country come from the US. This may well be seen as a riposte to the government of US president Barack Obama, which has accepted the country's major role in southwards arms trafficking fuelling Mexican violence.
4 comments:
Well that is a complete DUH!!! That must be the most openly known secret around. The people who do not know or care are the media and the average joe on the street.... Hard for the politicians to not know since they are the sellers.. What gets hackles raised is not legitimate us arm sales but the illegitimate ones. Few people care about what you do until you start breaking the law to do it. Hell the media does not even include the statistics of deserters from the mexican military who take their weapons and gear with them... Up until the gunwalker scandal most people simply ignored the reality of situation. Now the numbers are not adding up and people what to know why.. Why what they have been told is a completely warped fantasy... People in general do not seem to want to see the bad that goes on in the world. It is not until the evil is dragged out into the sun do they have the courage or willpower to turn and face reality.....
By the way Reality is why drugs are so popular in this country...
Been saying it ever since the first "news" report claimed the utterly debunked "90%" - ONLY if they're including military weapons given to Mexico and other South American hellholes.
Narco news called it before too, but with less specificity...
Glad to now have a definitive cite!
why would millioniar drug lords buy 10 or 20 firearms at a time in the us when they can buy them by the shipping container from points south?
it don't make no sense
And leave us not forget the two vessels interdicted on the high seas, loaded with military grade Chinese munitions and weapons. My bad, so sorry, those boats were headed to the US, so they don't count.
Wonder how many boats there actually were and where, they were all actually headed to? Might be some interesting intel there and the fact that NOBODY followed up, indicates a lot!
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