DGDevin wrote:

Mexico will continue to deteriorate, their self-destruction fed
by US-made guns flooding south across their border.

However the American appetite for illegal drugs is very much
driving the corrosive drug war underway in Mexico.

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Napolitano Says Drug Violence Not Rampant Along Border
Gather.com - Gig Veres - 2 days ago

Napolitano confirms gang killed border agent in battle
USA Today - Daniel Gonzalez - Dan Nowicki - 3 days ago
----------------

I hope I'm not the only one to see the irony of the above 2 google
search results showing up on the same page.

Actually two thirds of the weapons seized by Mexican police at
crime scenes do not originate in the U.S.

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Since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006, more than 30,000
people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico, the government
says. In the same time, Mexico's police and army have seized 93,000 guns
from alleged drug traffickers.

In partnership with the Mexican authorities, ATF number-crunchers have
sought to trace these weapons, matching recovered guns to their initial
point of sale.

A 2009 report to Congress by the US Government Accountability Office
reports that more than 90% of the "firearms seized in Mexico and traced
over the past 3 years have come from the United States". Of these,
approximately 40% originated in Texas.

US gun lobbyists point out that only a quarter of seized weapons are
submitted by the Mexican authorities to the ATF for tracing.

So there is no way of knowing precisely what proportion of the cartels'
guns are American, just as there is no clue to the overall number of US
guns still in use by the cartels.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12014794
----------------

For one thing, I don't know where or how the US gun lobby gets the data
that only 1/4 of seized weapons are submitted to the ATF for tracing.
It could be that any guns that are seized but not submitted for tracing
have had their serial numbers removed.

And besides - are there any gun manufacturers in Mexico?

If there is a ready retail supply of guns in Mexico (presumably - guns
still made in the USA) then why are mexican gangs going to the trouble
of obtaining guns in the US via purchases made by straw-customers?

It's really sad to sit here in Canada and watch you Americans
consume yourselves over this terrorism pretense as you allow
your gov't to destroy the very ideas of personal freedom and
liberty your country was founded on.

The worst part is both parties claim they're for liberty and
the common man, ...

No, the worst part is that it's so much more of a hassle for Canadians
to cross into the US and do some week-end shopping.

We could single-handedly bring some of your border cities out of
bankruptcy by going on shopping binges if it wasn't for the perception
that we're treated like terrorists by your customs agents who don't
believe us when we say we're coming over to shop or gamble at your
casinos and fill our car's gas tanks on the way back. But noo, it's
more important to present a severe and threatening presense at your
northern border and do everything you can to discourage trade and
commerce. Most americans have no idea that's happening.