Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated just last week that America is responsible for Mexico's heavily-armed drug gangs. I say, BS! by Right Rev. Rowland
(conservative)
Sunday, March 29, 2009
So Hillary says it's our fault that the Mexican drug cartels are so heavily-armed that they are holding their own against the Mexican military. She even stated that guns purchased in America were showing up in Mexico because of our lax gun laws. Mexico, she said, has much stricter gun laws.
Yes, Mexico has very strict gun laws. As a matter of fact, unless you are some sort of law enforcement or government official or agent, it is illegal for you to carry guns in Mexico. Citizens and naturalized immigrants can own guns in their homes, but the types are very restricted. There is an excellent summary of Mexican gun regulations here. The problem is, there are guns everywhere in Mexico.
Having lived 16 years of my life in Mexico, I know many Mexican citizens who have firearms not in compliance with their federal laws. I didn't meet any of them that smuggled them from America. Black markets have always existed and always will. Even prisons can't keep contraband out.
The point is, those who are willing to flout the law in order to have what they want will not be deterred by stricter laws. Only the law-abiding will be deterred by the law. The problem in Mexico is not with average citizens and their contraband guns, but with Narco-terrorists and drug cartels and their MILITARY hardware.
The US has to accept the responsibility of being the single largest customer to drug traffickers worldwide. Our wealth has been spread far and wide into the pockets of some of the worst criminals. We have even provided the money that has armed the drug dealers.
But to claim that our constitutional rights must be abridged because a neighboring nation is full of governmental corruption is, to put it mildly, a stretch. Stricter gun laws in the US will not keep the Mexican military from selling its hardware to the highest bidder. The automatic weapons and military-grade equipment that the drug cartels are using to battle the Mexican government did not come from gun shops in America.
The criminals in charge of the drug trade in Mexico do not care about our laws, and they will by guns and ammo wherever they are available. We live in a world that has a thriving arms trade, legitimate and illegitimate, and to blame the legal gun dealers for the actions of criminals is, well..... criminal.
To deny American citizens their constitutional right to keep and BEAR arms because of the turmoil on Mexico only makes us less safe when that violence spills over our borders. To take gun rights away from Topeka, KS, because Sinaloa, MX, has a criminal problem is the height of stupidity.
In a world growing increasingly dangerous, it is no service to the American people to disarm and regulate them into weakness. When guns are outlawed, only those who refuse to obey the law will be armed. Is that really who we want to have the guns?
Did you like this article? If you did, Thumb It! 136
thumbs so far
The views expressed
in this article are those of Right Rev. Rowland only and
do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates.
Right Rev. Rowland is solely responsible for the contents
of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated
with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
First all if the arms were coming from the U.S. I WANT TO KNOW ? WHERE DO YOU BUY RPG's and GERNADES??? No company in the U.S. makes RPG's and Gernades are only for the military no one can buy them,nor RPG's its illegal to own either!! The Democrat that made the comment that we were smuggling in Rpg's and Gernades really was dumb!!! Even the AK-47's bought here were banned from import into the U.S. back in 1994 and they were semi auto. The only place Mexico's drug dealers could be getting weapons like they are using would be either to buy them from corrupt mexican military or more likely and the lest expensive way is to buy them from cuba and Hugo Chavez and smuggle them in across the lower borders of Mexico! Why would they want a few semi auto ak 47's,rifles and pistols when they can go to 1/2 a dozen countries in central america and get all the military weapons they want and cheaper than from us. All that is a smoke screen and propaganda to fuel the fire so they can ban American citizens rights to own firearms leaving us defenseless and easy prey for the criminals that pour over the border. It's hard to control armed citizens ya know! But slaves do not own guns and are easier to control Thor.
Precisely... this is a part of the war on drugs that will be exploited and framed specifically to conform to the administration's intention to strip us of our 2nd ammendment rights. Why let a good crisis go to waste?
We are responsible! We need to repeal drug prohibition! We don't have alchohol wars. The drug war is lost, give it up and use our tax money for something worth whike for a change.
Posted By: john milliner
Date: 2009-04-01 23:33:32
This is all good and true, but where can we get primary documents, reports, official testimony, etc. to make our case? I want to find details of how they came up with this 90% figure being thrown around in the media. They all just accept it as gospel because the almighty AP said so. First, who provided the weapons to be identified? Chances are, it was the Mexican government. They wouldn't have a horse in this race, would they? Second, what were the sample sizes in relation to the estimated total number of weapons in Mexico (and who came up with that estimate)? Third, were they legally purchased in the US, and are they even of the type that can be purchased in the US?
IF ANYONE CAN COME UP WITH SOME GOOD SOURCES, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! WE CAN'T BRING A KNIFE TO A GUN FIGHT! konfuzd1@gmail.com
To follow up on john milliner's point, the article is great & I agree with it. The problem is it only states an opinion without documentation. IMHO, adding such documentation would vastly improve the article. ;-)
Posted By: Michael McDonnough
Date: 2009-04-15 20:02:33
The fact remains that without any real border control in the US we cannot hope to stop either drug and gun traffic or a North Korean army group from bringing a Nuke across that border. Blaming the 2nd amendment for the problems of Mexico is the heights of hypocrisy. Control your borders or you have no borders plain and simple.
Want to comment on
this article? Leave your comment
here. Your email address is required to track your
comment. However, we will neither publish your email
address nor distribute it to other organizations or
persons. The only reason we might use it would be if
we needed to contact you regarding your comment. All
comments are subject to our
terms of use policy.
