Talk about fueling both ends of the war

FRONT PAGE: "U.S. Stymied as Guns Flow to Mexican Cartels," by James C. McKinley Jr., New York Times, 15 April 2009.

We supply the demand for drugs and we meet the demand for guns from the drug cartels.

When the border states bitch about being on the front lines, we have to remember that they're also the essential arms merchants in this conflict. Houston alone has 1,500 (!) licensed gun dealers that are "easily accessible to Mexico."

Comments

[Arsalan]

It makes me wonder if we should follow Amsterdam in the legalization of marijuana. Only soft drugs (marijuana, hashish) and only at 'coffee shops'. If I'm not mistaken the Netherlands did this in an attempt to actually curb the use of hard drugs and in an effort to focus more on rehabilitation. Then again the Netherlands don't border one of the biggest supplier (and eventually producer) of narcotics in the western hemisphere. Or we could still go pretending that the DEA is worth its price tag and that our kids are immune to drug use. As for the gun flow in Mexico, lets hope the Cartels never team up and expend a great deal of energy killing each other with U.S Grade A small arms. We all know that only one cartel will be left and I'm putting money on los zetas. I'm sure the boys from the school of the Americas are only with the Gulf cartel in hopes of being protected and will take center stage when the fog is lifted.

[Hugh]

None of the Kalashnikovs (full automatic) manufactured in Venezuela make it into Mexico. Its just not logical or possible, borders are too secure and there is no money in small arms.

[joe Michels]

As I understand the fact this statement is a 1/2 truth: "Federal agents say about 90 percent of the 12,000 pistols and rifles the Mexican authorities recovered from drug dealers last year and asked to be traced came from dealers in the United States, most of them in Texas and Arizona."

Only 17% of guns confiscated by Mexican authorities are sent to the US for identification and 90% of those are of US origin.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/04/02/myth-percent-guns-mexico-fraction-number-claimed/

[Hugh]

joe Michels,Did you see the body armor confiscated with the American weapons? All of the body armor had Mexican Poilce markings on them. I wonder if the American weapons were originally sold to Mexican Police forces and ended up in cartel caches.