The U.S.-guns-fueling-Mexico-violence drum, that is...
Texas led the nation as the source of known weapons smuggled into Mexico with 40 percent of the total, or 4,800 firearms in 2008 — a year in which a record number of confiscated weapons were traced to U.S. retailers.
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In recent weeks, ATF tracing statistics have become increasingly politicized as gun-control advocates like the Brady Campaign cite them as grounds for new legislation and Second Amendment rights activists challenge what they mean.
Adding to that debate are widely varying counts of the number of guns smuggled into Mexico, the number seized and the number traced. Accurate totals can be difficult to obtain.
In their absence, a fight is underway over the origins of untraced weapons.
Top Mexican and U.S. politicians have asserted that the high percentage of guns traced to U.S. sources in the past — 90 percent of all those submitted for traces — indicates that a large majority of guns in Mexico not traced also comes from U.S. retailers.
But gun rights advocates argue the number of guns traced is but a small fraction of the total in Mexico.
Now one thing's a new one on me -- U.S. politicians asserting that a large percentage of guns not traced come from U.S. retailers? Do they have any evidence whatsoever to back this up? Do we have any idea exactly what types of guns aren't traced back to U.S. gun stores? Am I the only one who finds it outrageous that American government officials would actually propose more infringements on our rights based on such circumstantial evidence? Words fail me. I see lefty bloggers in Texas and elsewhere calling Rick Perry a treason advocate for mentioning secession and advocating states' rights, but they say nary a word about those who would limit Americans' right to arms with amounts to be barely a shred of concrete evidence and fail to explore alternatives. (If I didn't know better I'd say that, as opposed to having any real patriotism, said lefty bloggers are just pissed that Perry doesn't want the citizens of this fine state dragged on down the road to the collectivist shithole Obama wants to make the United States into.)
But I digress. None of the above is to say I think even more ironclad evidence would justify infringements on our rights. As the great L. Neil Smith says, "The freedom to own and carry the weapon of your choice is a natural, fundamental, and inalienable human, individual, civil, and Constitutional right -- subject neither to the democratic process nor to arguments grounded in social utility." But again, the fact that some of our lawmakers would actually advocate abrogation of our rights on, again, what amounts to be NO EVIDENCE? Just whose side are these people on? And why aren't they being called out as traitors, let alone not on trial with their lives on the line for treason?
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