A war is being waged by Mexican drug cartels that is killing thousands of ordinary citizens, police, and government officials.
According to an analysis by the Pentagon, the violence is even beginning to jeopardize the stability of Mexico -- a nation of almost 110 million people on our southern border.
Last November the Pentagon's Joint Forces Command concluded that Mexico was at risk of a "rapid and sudden collapse" due in part to "sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs." The Pentagon further concluded that "[a]ny descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone."
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder calls it nothing less than "a threat to U.S. national security."
What makes this dire situation even worse is America's nearly non-existent gun violence prevention safety net. Arizona's Attorney General Terry Goddard told CNN that America is "the gun store for a great deal of the world," a fact that Mexican drug gangs know too well.
As the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) reports, 90 percent of firearms recovered at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to gun sellers right here in the United States.
The Brady Center described the cost of putting American guns in the hands of Mexican gangs last week in a comprehensive report, Exporting Gun Violence: How Our Weak Gun Laws Arm Criminals in Mexico and America.
In a nutshell, criminals follow the path of least resistance. Mexico has some of the strongest gun laws in the world, and America has some of the weakest. Mexican gangs sell their drugs in the United States and buy their guns here, where we make it lethally simple for dangerous people to arm themselves.
Gangs then take those guns -- assault weapons, .50 caliber sniper rifles and semi-automatic handguns -- south of the border to kill police, innocent civilians and each other.
The same gun trafficking principle applies within the United States, as well. Domestic gun traffickers buy their firearms in weak gun law states like West Virginia and Mississippi, and distribute them to criminals in strong gun law states like New Jersey and Massachusetts. This is nothing new.
Officials in Washington have long known that America's weak gun laws facilitate Mexico's gang killings, just as they know that those same legal loopholes and corrupt gun dealers arm American criminals as well -- producing over 10,000 gun homicides in this country each year (compared to just 52 in the United Kingdom last year).
Columnist Ruben Navarrette said recently, "No point in denying it. Much of the death and destruction south of the border is stamped: 'Made in the U.S.A.' Americans helped make this mess. It's only right that we do whatever we can to help clean it up -- not just for Mexico's own good, but for ours."
Specifically, what Congress and President Obama can do is show some leadership, confront the gun lobby, and put America's national security first.
The president and Congressional leaders should require Brady criminal background checks for every gun sale in this country, including at gun shows.
They should restrict access to military-style assault weapons such as AK-47s that can fire 30 body armor-piercing rounds in 6 seconds, as well as .50-caliber sniper rifles that can shoot through armored vehicles and shoot down helicopters.
Congress and the President should also crack down on the small percentage of corrupt licensed gun dealers who account for almost 60% of crime guns in this country.
These are concrete steps our elected officials can take to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. American voters strongly support them because they will help save lives -- not just in Mexico but right here at home.
(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)
If you would like to own guns, you had better show your opposition to this war on personal freedoms.
The gun lobby has watched silently as related freedoms erode, and this has doomed their cause.
A country that has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prison population is a fascist nation. Police states do not allow personal gun ownership.
I f you insist on absolute power over what your adult neighbor puts in his/her mouth you will not live in a free, or a civilized nation.
The fact that no adult wishes to have his neighbor exercise this power over him should illustrate the hypocrisy of this nation's laws to anyone capable of thought. Sadly, there are not many gun owners in this group. Time to wise up, NRA.
But nice try at a smokescreen.
But the truth never got in the way of the Brady Campaign's bullshit, just like it doesn't stop the NRA from lying to wingnuts.
First, Central America doesn't have much of a firearm manufacturing capacity.
Second, it's largely state-owned; they don't want the guns used to overthrow their Govts.
False.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/guns.htm ~Sources of crime guns
" A flea market or gun show for fewer than 2%.
A retail store or pawn shop for 12%.
Family, friends, street buy, or an illegal source for 80%."
Now, you wouldn't want people to have the wrong information, would you paul?
But then, I read Mike102's comment and I despair for our public schools.
Helmke's comment: "Congress and the President should also crack down on ***the small percentage of corrupt licensed gun dealers*** who account for almost 60% of crime guns in this country"
Mike102 isn't smart enough to know the difference between a "small percentage of corrupt licensed gun dealers" and all licensed gun dealers. He believes they represent the same number.
Helmke said 60% of crime guns come from dealers. The Dept. of Justice says it's 12%.
Twist that.
The main reason gangs are using guns is to protect the collosal profits from the drug addiction of Americans, Canadians, and Europeans.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/04/02/myth-percent-guns-mexico-fraction-number-claimed/
This is a sampling issue and Fox is only selling you a misleading headline...
But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.
"Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market," Matt Allen, special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told FOX News."
It doesn't look like a sampling issue to me. The BC is selling YOU misleading info.
How about we legalize drugs, tax it, then use a portion of it to fund the Darwin recipients who abuse it like some do alcohol? It worked when prohibition was overturned. We can use the rest to pay off TARP.
Maybe someone can enlighten me, I thought this was ALREADY a requirment for FFL licensed dealers throughout the country (Not including private sales).
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Paul, how many times does thie bunk have to be refuted? All rifle ammo can pierce low levels of armor, you say you don't support banning hunting rifles yet your are trying to demonize the ammo they fire.
As for the AK47s 7.62x39mm round, this round is ballistically equivalent to the 30-30 round and MUCH less powerful (in terms of muzzle energy and muzzle velocity) than the most common hunting round, the 30-06.
As for firing 30 round in 6 seconds, you are speaking about the functional ability of semi-auto technology a technology used in the very hunting rifles you hypocritically say you aren't trying to ban.
As for the 50 Cal shooting how helicopters, this is blatant lie and you know it. The Barret 50 cal has been used by the military to shoot and disable aircraft WHILE THEY WERE PARKED ON RUNWAYS, not when they were in air.
You claim to only support "sensible gun laws" but you inability to pursue such a goal without blatant lies and mischaracterizations tells the American people otherwise.
This is why you always see these groups with AK`s and SKS`s made in Russia and China.
A AZ gunshop has been accused of knowingly selling 700 AK47s to straw buyers for the cartels, which are happy to add an additional $100 per weapon.
Who cares what Ruben Navarrette, a Mexican-American who writes a weekly column has to say? He is and always has been pro-Mexico and is all for America fixing Mexico`s problems. Mexico borders the greatest county on earth but has been unable to prosper, ask yourself why? Canada does just fine...