Mexico must believe that its lawsuits against firearm manufacturers and firearm retailers are on legal life support. The country is now turning to the United Nations’ Ninth Conference of States Parties (CSP9) to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to spread outrageous and false allegations about the American firearm industry.
Francisca Elizabeth Mendez Escobar, the Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations Office at Geneva, addressed the U.N. ATT conference. That’s the U.N.’s effort to control the international arms trade to ensure arms aren’t falling into the hands of criminal warlords, terrorist organizations and separatist groups looking to overthrow governments.
The U.N.’s Failure
The track record of this treaty is dismal. Take for instance the Taliban, which benefitted by seizing all the small arms left when President Joe Biden ordered the hasty withdrawal of U.S. forces, leaving behind $7 billion in arms equipment, including more than 250,000 automatic rifles, 95 drones and more than a million mortar rounds that require little training to use.
That’s not to mention the 35 ongoing armed conflicts in Africa, 21 Asian armed conflicts, seven in Europe and six in Latin America. Just last week, the United States intercepted 2,000 Iranian rifles destined for Yemen, which is languishing from an ongoing civil war.
To listen to Mexico, the illicit international arms market is not just the fault of U.S.-based firearm manufacturers. They allege it is the very product of these manufacturers.
False Accusations
“It is very important to make clear there is a link between corporate responsibility [and the illicit arms trade],” said Mexican Ambassador Escobar through an interpreter. “For example, the design of patriotic signs, etc. The lack of monitoring in distribution that lets these weapons be sold to criminals. Also, the lack of control in commercial practice, although some enterprises know their products are used by criminals.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. These are the same allegations Mexican authorities presented against firearm manufacturers when it attempted a lawsuit in 2021 with the help of the gun control group Brady United. That lawsuit seeking $10 billion was dismissed after Mexico claimed the narco-terrorism crime plaguing their country was the fault of U.S.-based firearm manufacturers. Five Arizona firearm retailers are requesting a court to dismiss a similar case brought by Mexico that offers no proof these firearm retailers sold firearms to criminals.
Mexico is ignoring the facts. The firearm industry is among the most-highly regulated industries in America. It is strictly regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and commercial export of sporting arms are strictly controlled by the Commerce Department, with input from the Departments of State and Defense. All foreign military sales are highly-regulated by the State Department with input from the Department of Defense.
Firearms are lawfully produced by federally licensed manufacturers and sold at retail by federally licensed dealers only after an individual passes an FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) verification. Only those who are of legal age and obey the law are allowed to purchase firearms.
Patriotic advertising doesn’t make legal firearm sales suddenly illegal. There is no evidence that U.S.-based manufacturers are illegally supplying firearms to international criminals. These allegations border on slander.
Mexican Corruption
Just days ago, Mexico’s former top law enforcement official, Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna, was convicted on corruption charges in a U.S. court for taking bribes from the Sinaloa cartel. NSSF has pointed out before that Mexico’s narco-terrorism crime plague is a problem that Mexico refuses to address at best, or is tangled up in corruption at worst.
Mexico has just one firearm retailer, which is located on a military base in the heart of Mexico City. It begs the question of how the country is awash in well-armed narco-terrorist militias. An independent investigation showed that the Mexican army “lost” 30 percent of the small arms it purchased from the United States. Those are arms only the government can buy yet they’re being found at crime scenes.
Mexico’s history of corruption with drug cartels is horrendous. Mexican generals and governors have been tried and convicted of corruption charges. Mexico’s former president, Enrique Peña Nieto, is under investigation. The current Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador embraced a “hugs, not bullets” policy to tackle cartel violence. That insulting strategy to tackle crime results in mass graves and dismembered victims.
Signature Removed
This also demonstrates the absurdity of the U.N.’s Arms Trade Treaty. The treaty was never intended to take on the sober work of reducing the illicit arms trade. It was an international push to denigrate the sovereignty of the United States to protect Second Amendment rights.
That’s the treaty that former Secretary of State John Kerry signed in 2013 but was never voted on by the U.S. Senate for ratification. A majority of the Senate has opposed the treaty. The treaty was billed as a control on the international trade in firearms under the guise of protecting human rights. NSSF strongly opposed the treaty as it would have exposed the firearm and ammunition industry to a confusing web of international regulations that would not have contributed to curbing illegal arms trafficking, protecting human rights or guaranteeing the rights of United States citizens.
That’s also why President Donald Trump announced in 2019, “We’re taking our signature back. The U.N. will soon receive notice that we are rejecting this treaty.”
Mexico’s allegations that U.S. firearm manufacturers traffic arms to criminals – especially international criminals – are absurd. Their accusations could be dismissed as bluster, except for the consequences of their falsehoods. Mexico is abusing U.S. courts on the international stage to scapegoat their own lack of responsibility for controlling crime on its side of the border. That abdication of responsibility only empowers criminal networks while its citizens suffer.
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
You know you’ve had a bad day when your head winds up 6 feet from what’s left of your body, couldn’t have been a 9mm because I don’t see his lungs on the street… Must have been one of those “decapitating” scary black rifles…
I thought those were supposed to rip you in half, not merely decapitate you.
(Although, I wonder … was that across the middle, or long-ways top to bottom?)
You know, as bad as the mexican .gov is I do not believe it is as corrupt as our current administration.
To make matters worse, the Puppet-Harris Administration has a lot more power than the Mexican government.
When drugs produced in Mexico cause problems here, it is blamed on user demand.
When US-made firearms are involved in trouble down there, user demand is not an issue.
Hmmm.
the cartels get their guns from a number of places….do you think all those AK’s and RPG’s are coming from us?
If they are getting them from US manufacturers they must have one very hard working armorer to convert all of that stuff to full auto and burst fire… I just want the name and address of the guy supplying those truck mounted 50 cals and the ammo for them…. Asking for a “friend”, of course…
Viktor Bout
Because the RPGs and full autos were coming from the US civilian market……..
Pull out of the UN. Waste of money and incompatible with the Constitution.
Next the thoroughly corrupt Mexican government will try to sue the maker of the printing presses used by the US Treasury for making our money so irresistible.
I vaguely remember years ago that a lot of the American assault weapons (yes a while ago) that were traced from Mexico recoveries ended up being M16 A1/2’s that we sold or gifted to various Central and South American countries. Haven’t paid any mind to claims of American gun owners being the primary suppliers since and that was almost 2 decades ago.
*cough * cough * fast and furious * cough * cough *
It’s EIGHTY seven BILLION in arms & cool stuff left to the Taliban…and more than that’s gone to the corrupt Ukraine. And Kamaltoe calls putin a war criminal🙁🙄
And there were reports of arms sent to Ukraine hitting the black market from the beginning. Why weren’t we carefully auditing every penny of every asset sent there?
Why weren’t we carefully auditing every penny of every asset sent there?
Because “Brandon”….
“I refuse to be lectured on gun control by an administration that armed the Taliban.” Tee from Warrior12.com.
Sh*t……..I knew they’d trace that m 249 back to me! Hope they don’t check the m-2!!
Never forget.
“Mexico’s 1968 Massacre: What Really Happened?”
“The number of civilian casualties reported has ranged between four — in the official count directly after the event — and 3,000. Eyewitnesses recount seeing dozens of bodies and prisoners being trucked away to military bases.”
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97546687
The same thing would happened many decades later. In Tiananmen Square when the Communist Chinese government murdered thousands of its own unarmed citizens. And drove over them with tanks.
Btw
After the 1968 Massacre the Mexican Government, ordered the confiscation of guns in the country. It was very easy because in Mexico the guns are registered.
The PLA drove over the bodies with tanks so many times the bodies were hosed away.
It was quite an eye out opener to watch it all unfold on television in 1989. And then to later watch as the Left in the United States actually denied that it happened. It was like watching people deny that Jews and millions of others were gas to death in 1944.
I have always said that Adolf Hitler was a Liberal. He was a vegetarian. He didn’t smoke tobacco. He didn’t drink alcohol. And he passed the first anti-smoking legislation in the western world. And like the Liberals of today he was a huge supporter of abortion.
He was also an opioid junky…
to maddmaxx
Correct he was a drug user just like most liberals are!!!
That’s why I say he’s like a liberal. Even Bernie Sanders agrees with Adolf Hitler. Just look at Bernie Sanders proposals for social legislation he wants the government to do. Adolf Hitler and Bernie Sanders agree on nearly everything socially the government should be doing for people.
For the people who think I’m crazy I suggest read “liberal fascism.” It says at all in that book.
For the people who think I’m crazy I suggest read “liberal fascism.”
I just ended a discussion on that subject, my argument was that communism is the extreme left with Soshullism to the right of that and fascism slightly to the right of that BUT still far left of our moderate left wing politicians.. Right wing in Europe is still left of center in US politics…
They’re taking a page from the Democrat’s playbook of blaming an imaginary problem to distract from their personal failures. It’s no coincidence that American Democrats are literally working with them on it.
Democrat playbook: “It’s racism. Yeah, that’s the ticket! That’s the problem. Black kids in America have no hope because they don’t have their own national anthem. That could turn everything around! Well, that and an antilynching bill. Hooray! We saved black people!”
Jump to 2:10 to watch him brag about the antilynching bill, as if this is an issue today. Then he describes racial atrocities that happened before most people today were even born. Then this evil man says, “and some people still want to do that.” Really? White people want to lynch black people, and of course, send out postcards? Why would anyone ever take dems seriously?
The best part is, he talks about unity in the beginning, like he always does. They say the opposite of what they mean because they think you’re stupid. Apparently there are legions of suckers who hang onto every word coming out of this lifelong liar’s mouth. Racism, as a national issue, is a politician/media/academia created problem. They can’t let it go because that’s how they stay in power. If black people voted like any other racial group, Democrats would lose. Dems understand that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUxskZJpb_A
Thank you to the drug legalization crowd. Who believe that raising a misdemeanor theft charge up to $950, is a very important step, for the legalization of marijuana.
The government you got in bed with gave you “syphilis of the brain”. Because the government wants all that “free tax money” from the legal marijuana businesses. You claimed decades earlier you supported giving to the government. Because you said marijuana should be taxed like tobacco.
“That way the government could make more money.”
“How Cartels Took Over California’s Desert and Turned It to Lawless Land | Dawn Rowe” video 24 min long
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX21ldNfefA
As for legalizing marijuana, big tax money coming in but with a problem. The secondary market is huge so the crime for illegal pot is still there. A lot of people don’t have the money to buy “officially legal dope” because it’s insanely expensive and taxed at 32%. 1/8 of an ounce will set someone back $60 but if you buy untaxed “black market” pot you can buy a whole ounce for $150. This happens in every state, just not California.
It’s the same with other vice taxes like sports betting. In states where gambling is legal, lets say Illinois for example, the state makes more money off of taxing sports betting then everything else in a casino. IOWs casinos and state make more money from sports betting then all of the other casino revenue.
The government is becoming the tobacco industry of the 1950’s, they know they are actively pushing two activities that could cause huge financial, emotional and addiction burdens on people. Gambling addiction is a real thing and regardless of the naysayers pot is a gateway drug.
There will be a big fallout over these two things but let the states rake in the cash. This is billions in taxes for the states. When the whole house of cards falls it’s going to be a disaster.
“But Rob alcohol is worse then marijuana.” Yes it is but the states have that all figured out. It will cost you about 17K for your first DUI in Illinois, they have it down to a science.
The main thing to remember is that mj is about as hard to produce as corn, in a legal environment. The real price of pot is less than 5$/lb…
The other gazillion bucks is just legal meringue.
Run that one by me again? Manufacturers are responsible for the illegal arms trade because of bald eagles and American flags? I feel like I’m having a stroke, trying to follow this kind of reasoning.
Please Dave, Don’t hurt yourself.
THERE IS NO REASONING It’s just proof positive that ALL Gubment is Stooopid. “It’s not OUR fault the Cartels have elevated mutilation and dismemberment and hanging people from over passes to an art form!” ” It’s the American’s and their Gun’s and flag’s ! Damn them All! ..etc etc”. The thought of Mexico chastising US and our companies for ANYTHING! is just , is just….. there are no words. I can’t do this without offending the 45 million wonderful Mexicans residing here in the states today. Hardworking/Family oriented people that just want to live their lives and provide for their children who get lumped in w/ the dregs of society. Blamed for someone else’s crimes. WOW! I just got it! Sound familiar folk’s?
I think I just had an Oprah light bulb moment there !
What IS our fault is 20% of America’s snorting and smoking the cartels products and creating this demand for this poison is bullshit!
What about the ammo the Cartels are stealing or robbing from Auguilla/Remington ammo factories located in Mexico?
SC Constitutional Carry Bill Advances To House Floor > https://concealednation.org/2023/02/breaking-sc-constitutional-carry-bill-advances-to-house-floor/
Cool may finally be able to carry somewhere other than a locked glovebox next time I visit SC. See what details they have for what permits (or if any are needed) for out of state visitors as this develops.
I’ve carried concealed in SC for years through reciprocity w/FL…
I can open carry in Ga, VA and most other states that have open carry AND reciprocity w/FL (all of the open carry states)… It’s all in how SC decides to word it but if you don’t have a CC permit from a recognized state, I’m pretty sure you’ll still be carrying your piece in the glovebox..
Worst case no change (NY reciprocity lol) best case they might be ok with a nonresident FL or open a nonresident permit and not require owning property in the state.
What about the Norinco AKs the chinese are selling the cartels?
And the fentanyl China is supplying the cartels.
It’s blame anything and everything but criminals and Gun Control gasbags…two peas in a pod.
Just think, some private in the Navy was told to lay all those rifles out that way for “accountability” by some idiot senior enlisted/officer. Poor souls. I don’t miss layouts one bit.
Mexico has plenty of sand. I’m confident they can find some to pound.
Does the Mexican Government really want to go there? The victims of narco trafficking could easily sue them under such a precedent for not taking sufficient control over the importation of precursors for meth as well as their importation of fentanyl.
Perhaps our resident expert on everything Dacian can give advice to the Mexican military on how to safely store their firearms. A 30% loss rate should be concerning. Any bets the guns disappeared with their last user by walking out the door.
When are Americans going to wake up and realize that Mexico is a greater threat to the US then Russia?
I’ll take, What is, when Mexico gets nukes? for $100
He might be going for the ethnic replacement argument but if that’s the case central and south America are both bigger factors on their own.
If the “American” people are so lazy and so dependent on drugs as to allow a group of uneducated individuals, who (in most cases) can’t even read or speak the predominant language, to “replace” them then maybe they deserve to be replaced… THAT “threat” will not end civilization as we know it, nukes on the other hand will dispatch us all to oblivion…
https://www.revolver.news/2023/02/america-lost-hardworking-men-who-held-her-together-and-now-she-is-crumbling/
This is more what I am concerned about longer term especially with pending retirements. It will not be intentional sabotage that gets us just mounting incompetence that eventually swallows us.
The Communists want us disarmed. They will do so any way they can. They have learned that Americans are easily worn down and eventually surrender, especially if their comfort is under threat. So the Commies know they can take over the US without firing a shot.
Mexico and the entirety of South and Central America are under Communist rule, influence, or order as is Africa. These places are shit holes. Biden wants America to be a shit hole too.
👆👆
here
i fixed the headline:
“Corrupt Mexican Government Blames Corrupt US Government for the Illegal International Arms Trade”
see also:
operation fast and furious
war in afghanistan
us withdrawal from afghanistan
war in iraq
us withdrawal from iraq
2012 attack on us consulate in benghazi
war in ukraine
I don’t sell guns internationally, in fact, it’s REALLY hard to do that legally.
Unless you’re the US government, then it’s no problem.
Its Trumps fault
It always is, even that great economy and peace we had. Luckily, Braindead fixed that for us.
get e. dick-holder to file more lawsuits
One must remember that the Mexican Govt is not just corrupted by the Drug Cartels, but it is a Leftist Regime.
JUst one smallpoint here. What the bloody hell has the TALEBAN got to do with the case inquestion? I just do, not see the point in conflating the two .
This is on the same scale of intellectual discourse as blaming crime on criminals or thinking that banning a criminal from gun ownership is going to make a Rat’s Arse of difference when the availability of firearms in the USA is such that ANY Criminal with the cash in his or her pocket can pick up their ‘Weapon-of Choice’ in under a bloody hour.
blaming crime on criminals
So just WHO the fuck would YOU blame for crime? The local gas station? How dare they be there doing business… You have got to be the dumbest fuck on the planet (well let’s call it a tie with the rest of the trolls on here) OBTW it’s TAL I BAN with an “I” idiot….
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