Mexico’s Former President Says America Should Legalize Drugs
Last week the BBC reported that Vincente Fox, former President of Mexico, offered the opinion that the United States is “responsible for the violence in this country,” and that if drugs were legalized that this would somehow solve the problem.
Maybe if Mexico hadn’t let the problem get so bad it wouldn’t be the issue that it has become. But here again the Mexicans can’t look inward and instead blame America. That seems to be an all too familiar tune from south of the border. Fox blames drug laws while current President Felipe Calderon blames American guns. Do neither of these men blame their own system?
HULIQ: Conspiracy Theory: Fast and Furious an Attempt to Further Gun Control
This week HULIQ ran a story that bears resemblance to a lot of what we’ve been thinking. Clearly we are not alone, when it comes to “Conspiracy Theory: Fast and Furious an Attempt to Further Gun Control.” The story notes:
“The investigation into the ATF (Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms) undercover operation known as ‘Fast and Furious’ continues and is the stuff of conspiracy theories.”
Among the points addressed:
“Both presidents of Mexico and the U.S. have claimed that 90 percent of the weapons recovered by Mexican authorities in a variety of crimes originated in the U.S.; all this in support of the gun-control agenda. However, Bill McMahon, ATF deputy assistant director, testified that of 100,000 weapons recovered by Mexican authorities, only 18,000 were made, sold or imported from the U.S. Of those, 18,000, just 7,900 came from sales by licensed gun dealers—8 percent, not 90 percent.”
This is a point we’ve made time and time again. And consider too that President Obama had said he was working on gun control but “under the radar.” Could it be that Fast and Furious was meant to fly under the radar?
Mexico’s Calderon: What’s the Difference?
Last week The Los Angeles Times quoted a senior official in Mexican President Felipe Calderon administration:
“Yes, it was bad and wrong, and you have to ask yourself, what were they thinking? But, given the river of weapons that flows into Mexico from the U.S., do a few more make a big difference?”
This was in reference to Fast and Furious, but it implies that Calderon still believes (or simply wants to blame) the United States is the source of much of the firepower used in the ongoing drug war. The problem is that Calderon continues to cite data that has been widely debunked.
Of course he probably needs to cast the point of blame somewhere. It just shouldn’t be north of the border.
More Anti-Gun Bias From Time Magazine
While the gang war south of the border continues, Time magazine once again managed to point the finger at American guns. In a story titled, “Mexico’s Gangster Send a Grisly Message on Crime” there is not one mention of Fast and Furious or the ATF. Instead the article offers this passage:
“President Felipe Calderon was in New York telling the United Nations General Assembly that ‘organized crime is killing more people and more youngsters than all the dictatorships put together’. Since Calderon took office in December 2006, more than 40,000 people have died in drug related violence. The president also struck out at the United States for failing to stop guns sold in the U.S. from reaching Mexican criminals, and urged the U.N. to take on the problem. Tests show that a majority of the automatic rifles in the hands of Mexican criminals were purchased in gun stores north of the border. ‘For what reason do criminals have access to AK47s, grenades and rocket launchers?’ Calderon asked. ‘The U.N. has work to do on this.’”
The problem with this reporting is that it essentially backs up the notion that the United States is the source of illegal guns. But let’s look closer at that sentence:
“Tests show that a majority of automatic rifles in the hands of Mexican criminals were purchased in gun stores north of the border.”
This is Time magazine, not some high school newspaper. Shouldn’t the fact checkers be doing their jobs? Even most high school newspaper editors would probably catch the point that you can’t buy “automatic” as in “full automatic” weapons at gun stores in the United States. The second problem is that this statement is based on evidence that has been widely debunked. In fact, tests show that the majority of guns do NOT come from gun stores.
Finally, what about the grenades and rocket launchers? Time doesn’t take the time to even address that these are not the types of items one can purchase at any gun store in the United States.
Fort Wayne Editorial Questions Motives of Fast and Furious
It sounds like it has all the makings of a conspiracy worth of a pulp fiction novel or a movie, but unfortunately Fast and Furious is very real. As we’ve long maintained, we at FirearmsTruth don’t buy into wild conspiracy theories or the idea of “false flag” operations to create a crisis. But Fast and Furious is one that has us questioning whether the government would do such a thing.
And we’re not alone. This week Bob Aldridge, a Fort Wayne resident and National Rifle Association-certified firearms instructor offered a compelling editorial for The Journal Gazette. He looked at the purpose of Fast and Furious, which was to track firearms to the so-called “big fish,” and somehow hope the some 2,000 guns didn’t get swallowed up in a sea of criminals in the process. Obviously as a plan it wasn’t a good one.
Aldridge wonders if there was something more to it:
“So, what was the real purpose of Fast and Furious, since the claimed purpose was impossible? President Obama, Mexican President Calderon, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and numerous others have claimed, falsely, that 90 percent of the guns used in Mexican crimes come from the United States. Could it be the real purpose of Fast and Furious was to flood Mexico with illegal guns from the United States in order to fabricate statistics and justify gun control efforts by the Obama administration?”
While this notion has been suggested many times, Aldridge makes a compelling argument. But we disagree with one point he makes, as he notes “eventually, the truth will come out.” With this administration and with the way that most of the media treats it, we have to wonder if anyone really wants to know the truth.
Mexico President Points Fingers at America Following Casino Massacre
Once again the ineffective regime of Felipe Calderon has no one to blame, so it blames the United States. Reuters reported:
“President Felipe Calderon declared three days of mourning on Friday and demanded a crackdown on drugs in the United States after armed men torched a casino in northern Mexico, killing at least 52 people.”
The United States has long tried to crack down on drugs, but the Mexican government has long turned a blind eye to it. This continues, but now that the violence is increasing the Mexican government wants America to save it.
Our friend Dave Workman writing for the Examiner notes that Calderon is pointing fingers at everyone but his own government or people:
“Calderon is now busily blaming the ‘criminal sale of high-powered weapons and assault rifles’ that end up in the hands of drug cartel gunmen for enabling the attack that killed 52 people and left the casino ablaze.”
The question is whether the American media will actually buy this line and blame America for this tragedy south of the border?
Foreign Policy Offers “Facts” on Guns in Mexico
When a news outlet offers “some facts” we have to wonder if that means they’re going to ignore other facts. That is the feeling we have with a post from ForeignPolicy.com this week. There version of “some facts” included:
- 20,504 out 29,284 firearms recovered in Mexico in the past two years came from the U.S.
- 15,131 of those weapons were made in the U.S.
- 5,373 were foreign made but came through the U.S. (the remainder were of “undetermined origin”).
- The firearms overwhelmingly came from the southwest U.S. The top three states were Texas (39 percent); California (20 percent); and Arizona (10 percent).
- 34,612 people have died in organized crime-related killings since Dec. 2006, when Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office.
- 2010 was the bloodiest year yet in Mexico. Killings jumped 60 percent from the year before, with 15,273 people killed, up from 9,616.
What is missing:
-Any suggestion where those hand grenades and grenade launchers that are seen in the various photos of guns that have been seized?
-Many of the guns are fully automatic and suggest these were military shipments?
-How many guns did ATF allow to “walk” to Mexico?
- According to SEDENA (Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense), in 2009 and 2010, 129,200 guns were seized in Mexico – there is a big different between 129,000 and 29,000 thousand guns. That is about 22 percent.
See, when you bring all the facts the numbers start to look different.
This is a revisit of the old 80 or 90 percent number. In this case the 70 percent number is just 70 percent of the 22 percent of guns actually sent for tracing!
Minutemen PAC: Mexico wants to sue U.S. gun makers
From Minutemen PAC:
The Mexican Government has retained an American law firm to explore filing civil charges against U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors over the flood of guns crossing the border into Mexico. Mexico’s frustration with U.S. efforts to stop the flow of weapons into Mexico has pushed Mexico to litigation. This past November, President Felipe Calderon reported that of the 90,000 weapons seized – among them 50,000 assault weapons, AR-15 machine guns, more than 8,000 grenades and almost 10 million bullets – most were American.
President Obama is also on record quoting that 90% of all guns seized in Mexico were traced back to the U.S. However, President Obama’s 90% figure is taken from the number of guns submitted back to the U.S. for tracing rather than to the total number of weapons seized by the Mexican Government. Of course, we have no idea what that total number of weapons seized is and what is the real percentage of guns crossing the border from the U.S.
Law experts disagree whether or not U.S. gun makers will be protected by “The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act” passed in 2005, or if the federal law won’t be an issue f or savvy lawyers. One the issue, Richard Feldman, President of the Independent Firearms Association, said: “Maybe we should be suing the Mexican government for their failure to prevent drugs from coming into our country.”
Perhaps, we should countersue the Mexican government for failing to prevent illegal immigrants crossing from their side of the border into the United States.
Mexico Looks to Sue American Gun Makers
Say it long enough and people will believe that “90 percent of guns in Mexico are from the United State” and if you say it even longer you probably can convince someone you have a lawsuit against U.S. gun makers. That’s exactly what CBS News is reporting this week:
“CBS News has learned that the Mexican Government has retained an American law firm to explore filing civil charges against U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors over the flood of guns crossing the border into Mexico.”
Of course we know that the number – that 90 percent number – has been widely debunked. But still, that’s not enough for Mexico. In fact, the story has gotten a bit surreal:
“On November 5, 2010 President Felipe Calderon expressed his frustration to CBS News correspondent Peter Greenberg: ‘We seized more than 90,000 weapons…I am talking like 50,000 assault weapons, AR-15 machine guns, more than 8,000 grenades and almost 10 million bullets.”
Where exactly are these AR-15 machine guns coming from? If they are true full automatic versions – which aren’t technically machine guns, but rather assault rifles – they are probably from the Mexican Army! Same with the 8,000 grenades. Despite what anti-gun groups would have you believe, hand grenades (at least the live and working versions) can’t be bought at gun shops and gun shows. The only ones you can buy are paper weights. We don’t think the cartels are using these as paper weights for all that drug money.
So maybe Mexico should think about this case again.
Reuters Bernd Debusmann Questions Obama, Guns and Media Control
In an editorial for Reuters, Bernd Debusmann takes a look at the gun control debate, noting what President Obama did, what the NRA counter with and in the process the writer tries to present just the facts. However, when reading it we noted he missed some key points.
He notes:
“The president made no mention of assault rifles, no mention of the high-capacity magazines control advocates want banned, no mention of private sales of guns that do not require background checks, no mention of the so-called Tiahrt Amendment which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important information to trace guns, no mention of a proposal that would have required around 8,500 gun shops along the border with Mexico to report multiple sales of two or more assault weapons to the same person.
“Thousands of weapons from those gun shops end up in Mexico, where more than 36,000 people have died since 2006 in parallel wars drug traffickers wage against each other – for access to the rich U.S. market – and against the government. President Felipe Calderon has repeatedly called for a re-instatement of the ban on assault weapons the administration of George W. Bush allowed to lapse in 2004.”
It is first interesting that Debusmann notes that gun control types do want to ban “private sales.” Usually this is masked in the so-called “gun show loophole,” and private sales aren’t mentioned. We hold the line that gun shows are the first step, private sales is the next followed of course by private ownership. But that’s another point.
What do note is that Debusmann accepts that thousands of guns flow south. This doesn’t explain the grenade launchers, machine guns and other military grade hardware. So we applaud the writer for presenting both sides of the issue, but he did so while failing to note those very important facts.
And without all the facts, the reader obviously is left to a bit of bias.
