See, I knew I would see something quickly! Arturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the United States, said the following on Sunday on Face the Nation: "...we have seen a dramatic rise of assault weapons being seized in Mexico. There's a direct correlation between the expiration of the assault weapons ban and our seizures of assault weapons."
Really? Hmm, that's amazing since that ban never banned the kind of hardware authorities are taking. A .30 caliber machine gun is controlled by laws that have existed since 1934, 1968, and 1986 respectively. The only thing the Clinton law banned was cosmetic features on "assault rifles." For example, take a civilian model AR-15 in your hands. This is the type that can not fire fully automatic without illegal modification. If you take away the flash suppressor, bayonet lug, collapsible buttstock, pistol grip, and high capacity magazine, then what do you have? You still have a semi-automatic rifle that can fire one round with one depression of the trigger. The internal workings of the weapon did not change hence the useless nature of this law. The Clinton Gun Ban did not ban anything other than a small handful of weapons including Street Sweepers and other guns that make great stories on networks because they look scary.
Why do I even care what a foreign dignitary has to say about domestic laws? Well, from the pictures I have posted we are talking about serious military hardware that a smuggler would never find at a small US gun shop. This stuff must be coming from other sources outside the normal channels. And if they are coming from legitimate sources, where is the evidence to prove that the serial numbers are tracked via BATFE data traces and therefore being sold to smugglers via normal sales? The point is that the blame comes to the US and its legal gun owners like usual. We're just as evil and vile as cigarette smokers. Cripes, a gun doesn't kill unless someone pulls the trigger. If you want to stop gun violence then enforce the laws we have and throw these people away until they're too old and frail to operate a weapon!
Impious since 2006
So I reckon that you're referring to articles like this: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/15/Mexican-cartels-buy-guns-from-US-dealers/UPI-32471239795150/
ReplyDeleteThe article specifically mentions that 90% of 12,00 pistols and rifles come from US Dealers. Sadly, the author does not give any indication how provenance was determined. The article also say that cartels are stocking up on military assault rifles.
So the military part means that some very mean kids are stealing from their Uncle Sam. If this is the case, there's little that changing gun laws will do to ameliorate that.
However, 12,000 pistols and rifles--anything from a .22 or something nice like a Ruger Mini-14 or an AR15. Without being "fully automatic assault weapons," one of those will cause someone a bad day.
If Mexican baddies get their hands on those b/c some jerk thinks that background checks are "Un-Uhmurrican," then s/he should go to jail because they are endangered many other people. The fact that there may be a culture that skirts the laws to the detriment of all society is troubling.