Press release from The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence:
According to a report in today’s Washington Post, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) could suffer budget cuts of almost 13 percent, which would effectively eliminate Project Gunrunner, a program designed to combat gun-trafficking from the U.S. to Mexico.
“Any cuts to the already under-staffed and under-funded ATF would be a setback,” said Brady Center President Paul Helmke, “but the kinds of cuts that are rumored would be devastating to the ATF’s ability to interrupt the flow of illegal guns across America and Mexico. Worst of all, though, would be for the Obama Administration to pursue these cuts without pushing to implement strong, commonsense gun laws, such as those to ban large-capacity ammunition magazines, assault weapons, and closing the gun show loophole.
“These laws would be more effective and efficient because they offer a pro-active means — instead of a reactive one — to stemming the flow of guns to Mexican drug cartels and to criminals and gangs on America’s streets. Not having an ATF director in place is also problematic. If we don’t get these new laws and ATF has to absorb substantial cuts, our nation will have effectively surrendered to the purveyors of the most massive gun violence in the U.S. and Mexico.”
As the Brady Center reported two years ago, the drug gangs are arming themselves largely from American gun sellers, exploiting loopholes in American laws. Traffickers buy assault weapons in bulk from dealers, or at gun shows without a background check. The Mexican President has pleaded with the U.S. to bring sanity to our laws, and plug those loopholes – which also cause untold bloodshed and crime in America as well.
Our leaders in Washington, in Congress and the White House, have largely ignored those pleas. The Obama Administration’s response was first to intensify ATF enforcement at the border, and more recently proposed to require reporting of multiple sales of assault rifles in the border states, to enable ATF to follow up on likely traffickers.
While these steps might help combat the problem, it would be far more efficient, effective and less expensive to implement stronger laws that require background checks, and bar sales of assault weapons, large capacity magazines, and other military weaponry.
More propaganda that depends on the consumer of said propaganda simply accepting it at face value and not doing a damn bit of easily doable research.
The real truth is that only about 10-25% of all guns confiscated in Mexico are actually traced. The fun part is that data comes from the same GAO report that WaPo selectively quoted so as to make things appear like they are actually a significant problem.
(not on my regular reading list, but a decent analysis anyway)
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/12/13/yet-again-media-exaggerates-scale-of-gun-smuggling-from-u-s-into-mexico/
As Mexican officials are doing whatever they can to get the US to help them, it’s a pretty safe bet that the ONLY guns that get sent to the ATF to be traced are the semi-auto sporter guns that likely came from illegally from the US.
Obviously, the full-autos aren’t coming from the US, the destructive devices (grenades, LAWs, etc.) may be US origin but they were obtained by stealing/bribing Mexican Federales or Army or Navy.
The BATFE is truly out of control and must be defunded by at least half to get them back in their place.
Would it be weird if there was a Bureau of Fat, Sugar, and Printing Presses (i.e. two random consumables that aren’t healthy and a tool of a fundamental right enshrined in the Bill of Rights)?
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