http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/04/02/myth-percent-guns-mexico-fraction-number-claimed/
The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.
By William La Jeunesse and Maxim Lott
FOXNews.com
Thursday, April 02, 2009
EXCLUSIVE: You've heard this shocking "fact" before -- on TV and radio, in newspapers, on the Internet and from the highest politicians in the land: 90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States.
-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it to reporters on a flight to Mexico City.
-- CBS newsman Bob Schieffer referred to it while interviewing President Obama.
-- California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at a Senate hearing: "It is unacceptable to have 90 percent of the guns that are picked up in Mexico and used to shoot judges, police officers and mayors ... come from the United States."
-- William Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified in the House of Representatives that "there is more than enough evidence to indicate that over 90 percent of the firearms that have either been recovered in, or interdicted in transport to Mexico, originated from various sources within the United States."
There's just one problem with the 90 percent "statistic" and it's a big one:
It's just not true.
In fact, it's not even close. The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S.
...
A Look at the Numbers
In 2007-2008, according to ATF Special Agent William Newell, Mexico submitted 11,000 guns to the ATF for tracing. Close to 6,000 were successfully traced -- and of those, 90 percent -- 5,114 to be exact, according to testimony in Congress by William Hoover -- were found to have come from the U.S.
But in those same two years, according to the Mexican government, 29,000 guns were recovered at crime scenes.
In other words, 68 percent of the guns that were recovered were never submitted for tracing. And when you weed out the roughly 6,000 guns that could not be traced from the remaining 32 percent, it means 83 percent of the guns found at crime scenes in Mexico could not be traced to the U.S.
So, if not from the U.S., where do they come from? There are a variety of sources:
-- The Black Market. Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar, with fragmentation grenades from South Korea, AK-47s from China, and shoulder-fired rocket launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet bloc manufacturers.
-- Russian crime organizations. Interpol says Russian Mafia groups such as Poldolskaya and Moscow-based Solntsevskaya are actively trafficking drugs and arms in Mexico.
- South America. During the late 1990s, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) established a clandestine arms smuggling and drug trafficking partnership with the Tijuana cartel, according to the Federal Research Division report from the Library of Congress.
-- Asia. According to a 2006 Amnesty International Report, China has provided arms to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chinese assault weapons and Korean explosives have been recovered in Mexico.
-- The Mexican Army. More than 150,000 soldiers deserted in the last six years, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo. Many took their weapons with them, including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle made in Belgium.
-- Guatemala. U.S. intelligence agencies say traffickers move immigrants, stolen cars, guns and drugs, including most of America's cocaine, along the porous Mexican-Guatemalan border. On March 27, La Hora, a Guatemalan newspaper, reported that police seized 500 grenades and a load of AK-47s on the border. Police say the cache was transported by a Mexican drug cartel operating out of Ixcan, a border town.
'These Don't Come From El Paso'
Ed Head, a firearms instructor in Arizona who spent 24 years with the U.S. Border Patrol, recently displayed an array of weapons considered "assault rifles" that are similar to those recovered in Mexico, but are unavailable for sale in the U.S.
"These kinds of guns -- the auto versions of these guns -- they are not coming from El Paso," he said. "They are coming from other sources. They are brought in from Guatemala. They are brought in from places like China. They are being diverted from the military. But you don't get these guns from the U.S."
Some guns, he said, "are legitimately shipped to the government of Mexico, by Colt, for example, in the United States. They are approved by the U.S. government for use by the Mexican military service. The guns end up in Mexico that way -- the fully auto versions -- they are not smuggled in across the river."
Many of the fully automatic weapons that have been seized in Mexico cannot be found in the U.S., but they are not uncommon in the Third World.
The Mexican government said it has seized 2,239 grenades in the last two years -- but those grenades and the rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) are unavailable in U.S. gun shops. The ones used in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey in October and a TV station in January were made in South Korea. Almost 70 similar grenades were seized in February in the bottom of a truck entering Mexico from Guatemala.
...
Originally posted by zeeblebotYes, and the liberal media and the left-coast communists and illegal immigrant apologists will twist the truth into a pretzel in order to make the US look evil. Enlightening article. It doesn't surprise me that it took FOX News to uncover the truth and the skewed journalism put out by Communist Broadcasting System (CBS), NewAge Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), and Apologist Broadcating Corporation (ABC).
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/04/02/myth-percent-guns-mexico-fraction-number-claimed/
The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.
By William La Jeunesse and Maxim Lott
FOXNews.com
Thursday, April 02, 2009
EXCLUSIVE: You've heard this shocking "fact" before -- on TV and radio, in newspape bruary in the bottom of a truck entering Mexico from Guatemala.
...
Who cares where they come from? Ever seen a gun stamped "Made in Mexico"? They gotta come from somewhere else, what's the big deal? Odd how people say mexican gang violence is America's fault because of the demand for drugs in America, than they blame America for the demand for guns in Mexico.
dee derp de dur dee derdily der, everything is America's fault, nobody else is responsible for their problems.
Since all guns are illegal to own in Mexico the drug cartels buy fully automatic weapons. Why buy an American semi automatic when you can buy the better weapon?
There is no liberal biased news media in the USA. The establishment uses the left and the right to accomplish their agenda. If there really was a liberal bias, GWB would have been a one term president.
Originally posted by Metal Brainnot with John Kerry as the opposition candidate. they tried, tho!
Since all guns are illegal to own in Mexico the drug cartels buy fully automatic weapons. Why buy an American semi automatic when you can buy the better weapon?
There is no liberal biased news media in the USA. The establishment uses the left and the right to accomplish their agenda. If there really was a liberal bias, GWB would have been a one term president.
Found this on a site about the Colt Government Model .45
"After WW I, Mexico procured an unknown number of
M1911 pistols made by Colt. These are rare because of Mexico's strict penalties for
illegal possession of military arms (ON SPOT EXECUTION). "
They didn't fool around back then.
Originally posted by Metal Brainwhat is the "establishment"?
Since all guns are illegal to own in Mexico the drug cartels buy fully automatic weapons. Why buy an American semi automatic when you can buy the better weapon?
There is no liberal biased news media in the USA. The establishment uses the left and the right to accomplish their agenda. If there really was a liberal bias, GWB would have been a one term president.
Originally posted by zeeblebotThe 17% wouldn't be in Mexico if: El Presidente Fox, President Clinton and President Bush II had not prevented the U.S. border being sealed.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/04/02/myth-percent-guns-mexico-fraction-number-claimed/
The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.
By William La Jeunesse and Maxim Lott
FOXNews.com
Thursday, April 02, 2009
EXCLUSIVE: You've heard this shocking "fact" before -- on TV and radio, in newspape ...[text shortened]... bruary in the bottom of a truck entering Mexico from Guatemala.
...
If you fight to keep your Northern border open so your citizens can egress freely, you cannot then intelligently complain about the border being open to gun smuggling.
Mexico: You can't eat your cake and have it too.
Originally posted by Metal BrainGlaring by their omission are:
The powerful people that run this country from behind the scenes. The Rockefellers have a great deal of influence of government in the USA. One of them is a Senator.
Sorros, Greenspan, Huffington, Gore, Clintons, Winfrey, Buffet, Kennedys, Ayers, Carter, Lucas, Striesand, Wright, Turner, Gates
Plus, you can’t omit past attendees of the closed Bilderberg meetings: George W. Ball, John Edwards, Bill Clinton, Richard N. Haass, Kathleen Sebelius, Lee H. Hamilton, Christian Herter, Timothy Geithner, Richard Holbrooke, Joseph E. Johnson, Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn, Lawrence Summers, Paul Volcker
Originally posted by MacSwainis that the meeting where they implant the puppetmasters?
Glaring by their omission are:
Sorros, Greenspan, Huffington, Gore, Clintons, Winfrey, Buffet, Kennedys, Ayers, Carter, Lucas, Striesand, Wright, Turner, Gates
Plus, you can’t omit past attendees of the closed Bilderberg meetings: George W. Ball, John Edwards, Bill Clinton, Richard N. Haass, Kathleen Sebelius, Lee H. Hamilton, Christian Herter, Timoth ...[text shortened]... Richard Holbrooke, Joseph E. Johnson, Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn, Lawrence Summers, Paul Volcker