Posted on 06/22/2011 12:23:21 PM PDT by marktwain
While the percentage of Mexican criminal firepower supposedly attributable to the U.S. civilian gun market continues to fall, U.S. gun shops (and gun shows) are still supposedly on the hook for 70% of recovered Mexican "crime guns" (at one time, the figure being tossed around was "95-100%"--a figure that steadily dropped as it became indefensible). That the "70%" figure refers not to the total number of seized guns, but to the percentage of those submitted to, and successfully traced by, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), is generally ignored. The fact that according to the Mexican newspaper El Universal, fewer than a quarter of the recovered firearms were traced, meaning that fewer than 16% of the total number of recovered firearms can be traced to the U.S., is definitely ignored.
That "U.S.-sourced" fireams would include not only those from the civilian market, but also weapons transferred by the U.S. State Department as part of our foreign policy, and eventually acquired by the drug cartels, is studiously ignored; and the fact that the "Justice" Department "gunwalked" thousands of guns to Mexican criminals is not only aggressively ignored, but activley (and mendeaciously) denied.
Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady brings up some interesting facts about "Project Gunwalker" in an article today:
At the same time, violence was spiking in Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Government abuses like THIS are another reason why all Americans must now put our 2nd Amendment FIRST!!
“Gunwalker” was under Bush, and weapons were tracked electronically, and seized before crossing the Border. “Fast and Furious” under Ubama, let the weapons cross the Border. Big difference! People calling F & F “Gunwalker,” gives others the opportunity to say it was created by Bush. It was changed so much by Ubama that it was no longer remotely like the program under Bush!
MarkT’
Inform others who may be as confused as I am, about the project names involved?
Start with Grassley and Issa.
“Most U.S. guns going south of the border are going to Mexican civilians for their own protection, sent by brother and fathers and uncles to their relatives south of the border, bought one at a time from a friend on the free market.”
I have always strongly suspected that but never saw it stated anywhere.
Yes, you are right AFAIK and it is good to make that distinction. As far as keywords go, for accessing FR archives, this story was first associated with the keyword "gunwalker" so it is the best keyword to use to find the earliest threads.
When I see these threads I add "gunwalker," "gunrunner," "projectgunwalker" and "fastandfurious" to them all. And "banglist" if that hasn't been added as well.
I have posted most of these threads to freerepublic. Here is what I believe is the correct nomenclature.
Gunrunner started under President Bush, and was supposed to stop guns from going south to Mexico illegally.
Gunwalker is the name the initial investigators gave to the scandal of the ATF ordering gun shops to sell to straw buyers that they knew were selling guns to Mexican cartels south of the border. It started in 2009.
Fast and Furious is the name of the ATF project out of Phoenix that looks like it was a subset of the Gunwalker operations going on in the Southwest, and possibly in other areas as well.
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