GAO Reports On Arms Trafficking In Mexico

NRAILA ^ | 06/20/09 | staff

[epow]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report this week entitled, "Firearms Trafficking: U.S. Efforts to Combat Arms Trafficking to Mexico Face Planning and Coordination Challenges."

Among other things, the report asserts that Mexican officials consider illicit firearms the number one crime problem affecting their country's security; that about 87 percent of firearms seized in Mexico and traced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) in the last five years originated in the United States; and that these firearms are increasingly more powerful and lethal, including "high-caliber and high-powered" AK-47 and AR-15 type semi-automatic rifles. The report further contends that the country's law enforcement agencies are insufficiently organized, and that Mexico has a history of corruption at the federal, state and local levels.

With regard to the "87 percent" statistic, the report's figures make clear that BATFE only traces a fraction of the guns seized. Those firearms are not selected randomly, but are likely selected because they are the guns most likely to have come from the U.S. Trace data reveals nothing about the large number of guns that are not traced.

The report also states "According to U.S. and Mexican government officials, these firearms have been increasingly more powerful and lethal in recent years. For example, many of these firearms are high-caliber and high-powered, such as AK and AR-15 type semiautomatic rifles." The report, however, states that about 25 percent of firearms traced were of that type, which works out to only eight percent of all firearms seized. Also, the report does not indicate what percentage of murde

[TXnMA]

It is the difference in weight that increases the felt recoil. My uncle gave me a SMLE that someone had "sporterized" by removing all the bayonet-mounting hardware and by cutting the stock back to what is usual on hunting rifles. That entailed eliminating at least one barrel band -- and, then they used a scraper to thin the wood down to a more sleek thickness.

Compared to a mil-spec SMLE, the "sporter" really hammers you with sharp, hard recoil. The first time I fired it was from a bench that was too high for me, and after the third round, I was, literally, nauseated. That's the only weapon that has ever shocked me like that...

I'm in the process of eliminating the steel buttplate, shortening the buttstock and adding a recoil pad -- but for extensive shooting, I'll probably still want a "Sorbothane" pad in my shooting jacket...

The SMLE Jungle Carbine will remain a collector's piece. The combination of fierce recoil and muzzle blast takes all the fun out of shooting it...

By contrast, "#2 Son" demonstrates the light recoil of the .223 AR-15 by shooting it with the buttplate on his chin, instead of his shoulder. (But I'd like to watch him do that with my S-I-L's M4 in 6.5 Grendel!) ;-)

[neverdem]

BTTT!