"Home Guy" wrote in message ...
Actually two thirds of the weapons seized by Mexican police at
crime scenes do not originate in the U.S.
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.
That is incorrect, although it was widely reported in that fashion in the
U.S. news media. When the Mexican authorities seize a gun *and* attempt to
trace it in the U.S., 90% of the time they are successful, it came from an
American gun shop. The part missing from most versions of this story is the
Mexican authorities make no attempt to trace many of the weapons they seize
because they already know they didn't come from the U.S. A handgun made in
Brazil and lacking the markings required to be imported into the U.S. didn't
come from an American gun shop, neither did a full-auto Chinese AK-47,
neither did a military rifle stamped as being the property of the National
Guard of Nicaragua, and so on. That's why the Mexican cops don't try to
trace a gun that couldn't have been sold in America. Some U.S. media
outlets reported the story accurately, but most went with the easy headline
about 90% of crime guns in Mexico originating in America.
The numbers are hard to nail down, although Factcheck.org roughly agrees
with the 1/3--2/3 ratio I mentioned based on the figures they could find,
but it could be more. It's a lot, it's a problem that should be addressed,
but it's not 90% as widely reported.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/counting-mexicos-guns/
"Given the lack of hard data from Mexico, we cant calculate a precise
figure for what portion of crime guns have been traced to the U.S. Based on
the best evidence we can find so far, we conclude that the 90 percent claim
made by the president and others in his administration lacks a basis in
solid fact. But we also conclude that the number is at least double what Fox
News has reported, based on its reporters mistaken interpretation of ATF
testimony.
Whether the number is 90 percent, or 36 percent, or something else, theres
no dispute that thousands of guns are being illegalIy transported into
Mexico by way of the United States each year."