There remains no doubt that the proliferation of automatic weapons have overwhelmed Mexican law enforcement and the military. In fact, the United States government has admitted that members of the Mexican military acting under the orders of narcotraficantes have made over 250 incursions in the past 12 years, far into the United States, shielding narcotics smugglers with these very same high-powered and fully-automatic assault rifles. For example, I can show you photographic documentation of Mexican military personnel well within the U.S. wielding a truck-mounted Ma Deuce (.50 caliber automatic machine gun). If the U.S. Department of Homeland Security cannot or will not act, I agree with General McCaffrey that Mexico has little hope to do so.
However, General McCaffrey's statement that 90% of automatic weapons in Mexico came from the United States is demonstrably false. Factually, these weapons cannot be, and were not, purchased from licensed US gun dealers and transported into Mexico. First, these weapons have been illegal to import since 1986, and thus their export cannot be replaced by import. Second, due to heavy demand and zero supply, these weapons are worth 10 times their value on the open and legal market as they would be on the black market. Finally, there are ZERO - repeat, ZERO - licensed dealers of automatic weapons in the state of California. As a firearms enthusiast, as well as holding a federal firearms license from the BATFE, I can state that with authority.
If General McCaffrey wishes to disagree with me on intellectual grounds, he may wish to bolster his argument by citing repeated testimony by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives that their records of automatic weapons are so flawed that they cannot be relied upon in a court of law. However, I do not believe that would counter what I've said herein.
Covers a couple of points nicely, wouldn't you say?
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