On 05-25-10, BOB KLAHN said to TIM RICHARDSON:



tr> We don't *owe* Mexico anything. *We* created this country,
tr> and if Mexicans want what we have here, let them have the
tr> guts to stand up and fight for it in their own nation.


BK>And they will say, it's the US drug trade fueling the violence
BK>there, and US gun sellers providing the guns the drug gangs are
BK>using.


Not so:


EDITORIAL: Calderon's shot at American guns - Washington Times


ASSOCIATED PRESS Weapons seized during operations against drug-trafficking
gangs are displayed in Reynosa, Mexico. The country's drug violence has killed
more than 9,000 people since President Felipe Calderon took office in December
2006.


By THE WASHINGTON TIMESMonday, May 24, 2010PrintEmailView 2Comment(s)Enlarge

Felipe Calderon received liberal plaudits for falsely claiming Arizona's new
immigration law uses racial profiling, but that wasn't the only baloney the
Mexican president peddled during his state visit. Over four minutes
of his Thursday address to Congress was spent lecturing Americans to renew the
federal Assault Weapons Ban that sunset in September 2004. His justifications
for the ban were all garbage.


Mr. Calderon claimed that guns covered by the federal ban were particularly
"powerful weapons." While the term "assault weapons"
may conjure up visions of
military hardware, the inside guts of these feared guns are essentially the
same as deer hunting rifles. The firing mechanisms in semiautomatics and
machine guns are completely different. The entire firing mechanism of a semi-
automatic gun has to be removed and replaced to turn it into a military weapon
like an AK-47.


Mr. Calderon's propaganda aside, Mexican drug gangs are getting real military
weapons from within Mexico, countries south of his border and other places
around the world. Reports indicate that grenades and rocket launchers in use
in Mexico aren't even available for sale in the United States and come from
places like South Korea, Israel and Spain. Between 2007 and 2009, 2,239
grenades were seized by the Mexican government, and those weren't from here.

Markings similarly show that machine guns in Mexico largely originate from
China, Israel and South Africa.


"If you look carefully, you will notice that the violence in Mexico started to
grow a couple of years before I took office in 2006," Mr. Calderon
said. "This
coincides, at least, with the lifting of the [U.S.] assault weapons ban in
2004." He also patronized Americans by warning that our own gun ownership
endangers the United States. The problem with these talking points is that
murder rates dropped in America and Mexico between the 2004 expiration of the
ban and 2008, when the latest data is available.


Likewise, Mr. Calderon's claim that 80 percent of guns used in Mexican crimes
come from the United States is completely false. Most weapons seized in Mexico
have traceable serial numbers that show they come from countries other than
the United States. The 80 percent number reflects how many guns sent to the
U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for tracing end up
being from America. Most weapons seized in Mexico aren't transferred to U.S.
authorities, so that figure is meaningless for calculating overall totals.


It is offensive for Mr. Calderon to come here as our guest and make up facts
to blame America for Mexico's many problems. But it was more frightening to
witness Democratic House and Senate members jump up and give a standing
ovation when the foreigner called for renewing the Assault Weapons Ban. That's
a warning all American gun owners should heed.





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*Durango b301 #PE*