FTR, I challenged you to provide a cite. You never did, big guy. The cite somebody else provided may or may not be of value. It gives a number without context
DC, Chicago, NYC- yes, we have tried it, and it didnt work.
I will concede a “significant” amount. But we really dont know, and since the “firearms seized by Mexican authorities that were also submitted to U.S. authorities for tracing.” were guns that the Mexican authorities thought might originate in the uSA, we dont know how many.
Post 294. :rolleyes:
I think you know why. It’s been explained enough.
The impetus for calling the Constitutional Convention was mainly the headaches that We The People faced in quelling Shays’ Rebellion under the Articles of Confederation system. Those guys, although they did have a legitimate point or two, were still a bunch of disaffected yahoos who went for their shooting irons instead of their votes and their representation, wanting to overthrow or at least nullify the democratic republic that was passing laws they didn’t like, “tyrannically”. Sound familiar?
The Convention created the power for the new national government to suppress insurrections like Shays’, using explicitly-created militias at first and later with a standing army and standing police forces.
From the same article: “U.S. police agencies have acknowledged firearms smuggling is fueling violent crime in Mexico.”
I’m going to go with the GAO and US police agencies over an Internet poster who says “nuh uh!” sorry.
Another nebulous statement that isn’t even a direct quote of anything said by anybody representing US LE. The article has little substance.
Again, GAO report or anonymous Internet poster…hmmmmm…gotta go with GAO again. Nice try though!
On a more serious note, what’s the deal with you anyway? You simply don’t believe that a lot of guns are obtained in the US and smuggled into Mexico, or what?
The **DrDeth **logic would be that Mexico’s gun control laws just don’t work.
Except most of the shootings are not random. They are because the shooter has a connection to the school.
Which has the “advantage” to the shooter that they are able to scout it out, by going there for years, and find any and all weaknesses that are an inherent part of having fallible humans in charge of protection.
Beyond that, they can wait until the beginning or end of the school day, while students are being channeled through the narrow constrictive security zones.
And, even if your idea did work out, and people will just got shoot up the school that is least protected, it doesn’t solve school shootings, it just makes them happen in poorer communities that don’t have the money for a million dollars of hardening upgrades.
What **k9befriender **said. School shootings aren’t like burglaries in which the burglar scans an array of targets and skips over the hardened ones, going for the vulnerable ones.
All manner of stuff gets smuggled both ways, including guns. I have seen no convincing evidence that the violence in Mexico is, in any major degree, due to guns smuggled there from the US. Your article says it is, but gives nothing substantive to support the assertion.
I’m sure you are right. The 10s of thousands of guns smuggled into Mexico have no effect on violence in Mexico. I don’t know what I was thinking, reading government reports and what-not. Thanks for setting me straight.
Did I say it had no effect? Pretty sure I didn’t, chief. I am, however, of the opinion that if another gun never made it into Mexico from the US, the situation there would change only slightly. Mexico has a southern border and coastlines, too. They have corrupt, broke neighbors to their south. Replace the smuggled American commercial guns with smuggled Venezuelan AKs. Or Chinese-made military weapons, as they’ve been known to deal to the black market. Those thousands of American guns are not improving the situation in Mexico, but neither are they the linchpin of the violence.
Whatever you say, sport.
Manson, the USA is not the only country where guns can be easily obtained. Black market deals to get older Russian military weapons are practically a cliche. And like Scumpup points out, there are many other trade routes into Mexico. So, yes, right now it is trivially easy to make straw purchases in the U.S.
Anyone without felony convictions that are listed in the Federal database can just buy a gun over the counter at a Walmart. There is no requirement to account for the gun - cops can’t show up next week and expect you to still have it, it is totally legal to claim you sold it to another citizen of your same state and you no longer have their contact information.
So yes, you can buy a few guns that are ideal for cartel violence. Maybe grab some scopes and body armor and extra magazines, so your Mexican friends can have a fighting chance. And then sell them for cash at a markup. It’s a crime that you would have to be a total moron (or the victim of a well set up sting) to even be caught committing.
So they can find plenty of patsies to act as purchasing agents here in the U.S.
However, if this could be shut down somehow - I don’t know how - then those crates of machine parts from Romania are an older, classic way to do this. Not to mention that some of the Russian weapons are anti-tank or anti-aircraft or actual machineguns, none of which are available over the counter here in the U.S.
I think you could figure something out eventually.
Even without those things, they could just smuggle in some cars and swimming pools. So it’s hopeless.
I’m not sure what you are trying to tell me here, but thanks for the info.
What, exactly, do you see happening long term if you could wave your little magic wand with the star on it and end gun smuggling from US to Mexico this moment?