...from one Ruben Navarrette, Jr.:
SAN DIEGO -- It's time for the American people to stop living in a state of denial and get serious about stopping gun shipments into Mexico.
Mexico's ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, has noted that as many as 2,000 weapons enter Mexico from the U.S. every day -- most of them through Texas and Arizona, and many of them are purchased legally at gun shows and gun stores. Many of the transactions come in "straw purchases," where drug traffickers use Americans -- including friends and relatives -- to buy guns.
Note here that Navarrette says nothing about stopping the flow of drugs northward. I guess that's probably because such an action would imply some semblance of tighter border security. Not that his stance surprises me, but still I find it appalling that he along with so many other people are so willing to blame Mexico's troubles all on American weaponry — anyone who knows anything about American gun laws knows, of course, that the full-auto weaponry, grenades and such are all very tightly regulated here in the United States. Arguably much too tightly, I would think, for Mexican drug cartels to waste any meaningful amount of time trying to get them here when they could get them much easier (and cheaper, no doubt) from the Mexican military.
When someone goes north looking for work, Mexicans naively assume they have seen the last of him. And when guns go south looking for trouble, Americans assume the same about the havoc they create.
Hey, more blaming of the guns! Amazing. The way he talks one would think there were roving bands of animate, feral weaponry ravaging the Mexican countryside and terrorizing the Mexican population. Funny thing about that though, I have yet to see such weaponry doing the same to American citizens. It's always somebody shooting the gun instead of the gun shooting itself here. Do those roving bands of weapons down in Mexico go foraging for ammo too? I wonder if they could find us any cheap 7.62x51mm NATO, and maybe some .45ACP while they're at it...
Napolitano has promised to increase the Homeland Security Department's cooperation with Mexico to help curb the southward export of assault weapons. And, on that topic, Attorney General Eric Holder caused a stir when he turned the drug war into a debate on gun control.
"As President Obama indicated during the campaign," Holder said, "there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons [which expired in 2004]. I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum."
That was all it took. Those who love their guns more than their neighbor to the south were eager to believe CNN's Lou Dobbs when he declared: "Attorney General Eric Holder is willing to sacrifice our gun ownership rights under the Constitution for the benefit of a foreign government, in this case Mexico."
Suddenly, the anti-Mexico crowd had a new warning for America. And like the rest of their gibberish, this bit of nonsense fit on a bumper sticker: "Obama will take away your guns -- to please Mexico."
WOW. "Those who love their guns more than they love Mexico"?! Wow, talk about outrageous demagoguery. I am speechless here. What a way to cast freedom-loving Americans. With such offensive rhetoric one could be excused for thinking Navarrette's sympathies don't lie with the country he calls his home now. If that's the case — and judging by much of his other scribblings it would seem that it is — then why is he still here?
As for the "gibberish" he speaks of, it sounds about right to me. After all, the "assault weapons ban" didn't do anything to help crime before; what will the next step be when it fails to make a dent in the violence south of the border now? We all know that's exactly the way it's going to go because the cartels aren't getting their most dangerous weapons here. And Lou Dobbs' statement sounds about right to me; the anti-gun record of the new administration, and the antipathy held by the new President and AG isn't exactly a secret...
This is a serious issue worthy of serious discussion, without hyperbole or distortions.
Oh, my. I am sure he said this without even the slightest trace of irony.
"In a single seizure," the ambassador said, "we detained half a million rounds of ammo, 270 semi-automatic assault weapons, fragmentation grenades and ... sniper rifles. And they were all coming from the U.S. side of the border."
Fragmentation grenades? From the United States? Sniper rifles? Does he have any documentation whatsoever to back up this claim? (No, of course not. He just says it and Mr, Navarrette laps it up, as it fits the narrative perfectly.)
And once again, why no talk of drug legalization or border control? How much longer are we going to talk around this issue?
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