“Most of the weapons come from El Salvador - - the homeland of most of the gang members - - where a hand grenade sells for $10; an M-16 rifle for $200; and an AK-47 for $1,500”
This is precisely why anyone pointing fingers at exports of semi-automatic M-16s and mod’d AK’s from the US is all wet.
I've been saying that any flow of US arms into mexico is almost entirely for the use of otherwise honest citizens who are under threat from drug lords (inc. MS13) as well as their own government.
We're not so far from that here either...and getting closer by the day.