Posted on 05/05/2011 10:07:33 AM PDT by neverdem
New Study Points to Truth About Mexican Cartels' Guns |
Friday, April 29, 2011 |
The Woodrow Wilson International Center, which previously accepted as fact that incredible numbers of newly purchased firearms were being smuggled from the U.S. to Mexico, has just released a report(PDF) showing that the numbers have been incredibly exaggerated. The revelation shifts the blame for Mexicos drug cartel problem away from Americas lax gun laws, and squarely in the direction of Mexican officials and Central American weapons smugglers. According to the report, Mexican President Felipe Calderon "[S]aid Mexico had seized about 90,000 arms . . . . [B]ut ATF now reports that tens of thousands of the trace requests are duplicates. In some cases, ATF has received information on the same firearm up to five times as Mexican police, a crime lab, the military, and the Attorney Generals office all write down information on the same firearm, and the individual in the Attorney Generals office in Mexico City submits trace requests on all of them. Of the remaining firearms, the Mexican government has also failed to sometimes include basic information about the firearms such as the manufactures serial number or the import number on many [of] these firearms. Furthermore, about 26 percent of Mexicos trace requests to the U.S. government for FY 2009 were untraceable because of serial number errors and 75 percent of the firearms ATF was able to trace to the first purchaser in the United States were purchased more than five years ago. While Pres. Calderon regularly blames America for Mexicos problem, ATF officials . . . have sought to physically inspect firearms at crime scenes or at Mexican military storage facilities, but have had limited success, mostly because Mexican officials or the Mexican Attorney Generals office prevented such access, due in part to national sensitivities and lack of trust. The report also corroborates previously revealed information that U.S. military officials also report that more than 50 percent of the military-type arms such as mortars, hand grenades, and grenade launchers discovered in [cartel] caches have crossed into Mexico most recently from Central America. Nevertheless, the report recommends adoption of the BATFEs proposal to require firearm dealers in the four southwestern U.S. states to file multiple sales reports on people who buy more than one detachable-magazine semi-automatic rifle in a caliber greater than .22, including .223. It also recommends joint BATFE/ICE investigations that are focused on smuggling offenses, increased penalties for straw purchasers and, without much explanation, higher quality license plate readers on highways out of the United States. |
This could be an interesting read. Where's the mortar ammo coming from? You need some serious training to fire mortars other than direct lay and direct alignment.
Yeah, I was wondering how they were going to ‘prove’ that the heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, RPG’s and such were coming fom gun shows and firearms stores.
Just give them time. Just give them time.....
Exactly what I keep saying: give them enough time and they’ll come up with a good enough lie that people will believe it.
Why am I picturing Ox being choked by Sgt. Hulka?
That is why I think that DOJ is stonewalling Congress on the Gun Walker investigation cause by government whistle-blowers.
BUMP!
Yup. I've been saying for some time that what they need to look at if they are really interested in where the cartels are getting their guns is to track down their suppliers of artilary, grenades, and autmatic weapons. I suspect strongly you'll find that most of these came from the mexican military.
From pages 7 & 8 of the PDF (page 7 footnotes omitted):
Government Challenges
Mexico
While the Mexican government has been successful at seizing
large numbers of firearms and ammunition from OCGs, the key
challenge that Mexico has yet to effectively address is
providing quality information on firearms seized in Mexico
to he U.S. government. ATF has said that information from
firearm trace requests is the single most important data to
stopping U.S. firearms traffickers. After the Mexican
government handed ATF a list of tens of thousands of
firearms in late 2009, there was hope that this list would
provide the U.S. government with much needed information on
U.S. buyers and lead to improved firearm trace request
submissions by Mexico.31 Although the list did provide ATF
with helpful information, it turned out to be of much less
value than originally thought, and many of the problems ATF
faced with the list has continued with Mexicos firearm
trace requests last year.32 In particular, Mexican
authorities are not providing information on enough of the
firearms they seize, with enough detail, and in a timely
basis. For these reasons and the fact that most of the
firearms ATF has information on were purchased more than
five years ago, ATF officials have said they have only been
able to use about eight percent of Mexicos firearm trace
requests to initiative ivestigations in the United States.33
While the Mexican government has been successful at seizing
large numbers of firearms and ammunition from OCGs, the key challenge that Mexico has yet to effectively address is
providing quality information on firearms seized in Mexico
to he U.S. government. ATF has said that information from
firearm trace requests is the single most important data to stopping U.S. firearms traffickers. After the Mexican
government handed ATF a list of tens of thousands of
firearms in late 2009, there was hope that this list would
provide the U.S. government with much needed information on U.S. buyers and lead to improved firearm trace request
submissions by Mexico.31 Although the list did provide ATF with helpful information, it turned out to be of much less
value than originally thought, and many of the problems ATF faced with the list has continued with Mexicos firearm
trace requests last year.32 In particular, Mexican
authorities are not providing information on enough of the
firearms they seize, with enough detail, and in a timely
basis. For these reasons and the fact that most of the
firearms ATF has information on were purchased more than
five years ago, ATF officials have said they have only been able to use about eight percent of Mexicos firearm trace
requests to initiative ivestigations in the United States.33
Of the remaining firearms, the Mexican government has also
failed to sometimes include basic information about the
firearms such as the manufactures seral number or the
import number on many these firearms. According to a
detailed U.S. DOJ Inspector General report released in
November 2010, about 26 percent of Mexicos trace requests
to the U.S. government for FY 2009 were untraceable because
of serial number errors.38 ATF officials have also said
Mexico has submitted thousands of trace requests on firearms
likely imported into the United Sates without import
numbers, at least in part because it is not Mexican practice
to include such information for Mexican judicial proceedings.39
While firearms that they cannot be traced to the first
purchaser in the United States are still useful to ATF,
tracing the firearm to the first person to purchase or own
the firearm in the United States is helpful in identifying
traffickng patterns, determining the origin of a firearm,
and starting a criminal investigation.40 In total, ATF has
said they were able to trace to the first purchaser in the
United States about 25 percent of the firearm trace request
submitted by Mexico as of August 2010.41
With the firearms ATF was able to trace to the first
purchaser in the United States, a necessary component for
ATF to start an investigation, ATF has experienced
challenges with the time between when the firearm was
purchased in the United States and when Mexico submis the
request. Mexico, for example, submits firearm trace
requests to ATF on average about one year to one year and
half after the firearm has been seized in Mexio, in some
cases up to three years, making it much more difficult for
ATF to discover how the firearm reached the illegal trade
in the United States.42 In addition, according to the same Inspector
Generals report, 75 percent of the firearms ATF was able
to trace to the first purchaser in the United States were
purchased more than five yeas ago. The report further says
that only about 18 percent of the firearms were purchased
less than three years ago. To improve the timeliness and
accuracy of the trace requests, ATF officials stationed in
Mexico or along the U.S. southwest border have sought to
physically inspect firearms at crime scenes or at Mexican
military storage facilities, but have had limited success,
mostly because Mexican officials or the Mexican Attorney
Generals office prevented such access, due in part to
national sensitivities and lack of trust.43
I also think that the Gun-Walking (Fast & Furious) program was designed to create a desired fiction that would allow WA DC the cover it needed to issue more gun control laws.
And it is as criminal as planting a gun at a crime scene to implicate an innocent man.
I wish the NRA had the balls to raise this.
Whose letterhead is on the article of this thread which mentioned mortars, hand grenades and grenade launchers?
Are you a member? What else do you want them to do?
Holder on gun smuggling scandal: I frankly dont know what really happened
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Issa should go after Dennis K. Burke, the US Attorney for Arizona. He is a former staffer to Governor Napolitano, and is chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (on policy, management and operations). He is close to both Napolitano and Holder; he has administered Arizona operations since 2009, and definitely should be brought to Washington to testify.
They’re going to some pretty good gun show. Haven’t found anything like that at Crossroads.
Oh, hell no! Like OJ, Obama is chromosomally incapable of having committed a major crime!
The brother be righteous!
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