Can somebody please answer a simple question for me?
The price of a “real” AK-47, capable of fully automatic fire, is actually lower on the world market, than the semi-auto only versions sold in the US. I presume it’s the same for M-16s, since they would be coming, in bulk, directly from government warehouses. It’s not like there’s any reason for the drug cartels to avoid importing weapons from illegal sources!
Why in the world would criminals buy semi-auto only guns from “legal” channels in the US, since they’re more expensive, and could lead to “problems?”
It just doesn’t make any sense at all, and I want to call “Shenanigans!”
Mark
I'd bet that the 17% or so of firearms seized in mexico and traced to US origins came from individual citizens who had someone 'import' them for protection. I'd back that bet with another saying that virtually 100% of the semi-automatic only "M16" and "AK47" style rifles seized in mexico fall into that group.
The bad guys can buy full auto and untraceable weapons in bulk and, since their business is illegal import and export to begin with, have no trouble getting them to their ground troops. Ordinary citizens, on the other hand, will have to rely on relatives in the US, small time smugglers, and wildly inflated price tags to get anything at all for personal protection.
I know a native Liberian who married an American woman and now lives part time in the US. In the aftermath of the fairly recent Liberian civil war the normal going price for a used but serviceable full auto AK-47 on the Monrovia black market is, or was recently, $50.
I don't know what a FULL auto AK smuggled in from Africa sells for in Mexico, but I'm pretty sure it would be far less than what a SEMI-auto AK or Bushmaster smuggled from the US would go for. A Mexican drug runner would be a fool to pay up to $1000 or more for a semiauto AK or AR smuggled in from the US if he can get the original full auto version for far less.