As the L.A. Times seemingly stumbles towards an unmarked grave in journalistic Potter’s Field, every once in a while it spits out something that reminds me why I will kinda miss the Left Coast Gray Lady when she’s gone. Today’s issue of the Times features a well-researched story that busts open a disturbing secret – that for all our screeching about illegals & drugs coming north across La Frontera, something far more sinister is passing them on its way south: guns.
Viz:
High-powered automatic weapons and ammunition are flowing virtually unchecked from border states into Mexico, fueling a war among drug traffickers, the army and police that has left thousands dead, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.
The munitions are hidden under trucks and stashed in the trunks of cars, or concealed under the clothing of people who brazenly walk across the international bridges. They are showing up in seizures and in the aftermath of shootouts between the cartels and police in Mexico.
More than 90% of guns seized at the border or after raids and shootings in Mexico have been traced to the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Last year, 2,455 weapons traces requested by Mexico showed that guns had been purchased in the United States, according to the ATF. Texas, Arizona and California accounted for 1,805 of those traced weapons.
The article goes on to show that the border area has exploded with a lot of gun shops shipping out badass weapons under what can best be described as a “don’t ask-don’t tell” policy to whoever can fog and mirror and foist over a wad of cash.
Yay for good ol’ American profiteering! Who gives a shit what happens when those weapons make it to the other side of the border? Time and again, for easy money, American buyers grab stacks of assault rifles and turn them over to the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas. What could the result of that be?
The body count, meanwhile, is rising. Since a military-led crackdown on narcotics traffickers began 18 months ago, more than 4,000 people in Mexico have died in drug-related violence, including 450 police officers, soldiers and prosecutors, as well as innocent bystanders, cartel members and corrupt officials, according to Mexican authorities.
Tom Mangan, a senior ATF special agent in Arizona, compared the flow to reverse osmosis. “Just like the drugs that head north,” firearms move south, he said. “The cartels are outfitting an army.”
Next time you hear some talk-radio infused dittohead or Ton Tancredo-alike railing on about border security, be sure to bring this one up, eh? My guess is that the NRA is already springing into action on this one – and that the LA Times site is about to be descended on by the nitwit tribes, all pissing and moaning about the damn “lib’rul media.”
Of course, when this war starts spilling over the border (how long do you think that it’s going to stay confined to Tijuana and Juarez? Another six months? A year? How ’bout six months ago?), we’re going to be flailing around for answers to the bloodbaths taking place on the streets of San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas, LA, etc. etc. And no doubt we’ll also hear all the same old worn-out songs about “guns don’t kill people,” and “just enforce the laws on the books.”
We won’t see any meaningful change in the gun laws in the U.S. until the violence reaches the streets of midwestern small-town America, and touches the lives of the insular, apathetic inhabitants of Redneckistan. That day may be closer than they think… Technorati Tags: 2ndamendment, zetas, assault rifles, border, frontera, gun trafficking