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Mexican Drug Cartels Binge on American Bullets
It's no coincidence that the ammo business is booming along the border.
So popular is the 7.62 caliber ammunition for AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifles that one Academy Sports and Outdoors in the border city of McCallen, Texas, recently stacked shoebox-sized cases several feet high down half a row in the hunting section.
Employees said customers routinely fork over thousands of dollars — in cash — to pile shopping carts high with ammunition that Mexico’s drug cartels will use to lock and load their favorite assault-style weapons and handguns for battle against police and each other. Employees like Francisco Rodriguez, who works in the guns and ammo section, are not short of stories about Hispanic men clearing shelves of 9 mm rounds, another favorite.
“I had a guy come in the other day and clear me out of .223s,” Rodriguez said, referring to ammunition that fits assault-type rifles as well as classic hunting rifle styles. But unlike a typical hunter, this customer “paid $5,000 cash, and then he went to one of our other stores and cleaned that out, too. I didn’t ask what he was going to do with it. He probably was going to take it to Mexico.”
The market for certain kinds of ammo is so robust these days that sporting goods stores large and small report being unable to keep up with demand for .50 caliber sniper rifle rounds, which can sell for $4 each, or 5.7 caliber “cop killer” rounds that, fired from a handgun, can punch through police body armor. The bullet business is simply booming all along the border, and I have found that’s no coincidence.
As big media outlets are belatedly starting to report, American law enforcement authorities, under pressure from Mexico, are escalating a push to slow the guns bought from U.S. merchants and smuggled by drug gang paramilitaries. These have helped them kill more than 6,000 Mexican gangsters, innocent citizens, police, and government officials in just the past year. But what’s been overlooked is that the the gun smuggling problem has an evil, much neglected, twin sibling: bullets. There is nothing illegal about buying or selling large amounts of civilian-use ammunition to just about any adult in the U.S. Unlike some laws governing the sale of new guns, bullets are a commodity almost as unregulated as milk or bread, with no record keeping requirement, limit on volume per individual, or disqualifying criminal history for buyers. Also, unlike guns, bullets don’t have serial numbers that can later be traced to a store or person.
The one law that applies to ammunition purchases doesn’t hinder much. It requires that buyers be U.S. citizens. But retailers aren’t required to check. So it’s don’t ask, don’t tell. Day shoppers from Mexico are taking advantage of the bounty and lax inspections on the southbound return trip.
Mountains of ammunition types that fit cartel weapons of choice keep turning up across the Rio Grande in underground weapons depots. Mexico’s attorney general’s office gave me documents that report three million rounds have been seized in the country in just the last 24 months, a volume considered to be a very small percentage of a vast unknown total.
Owning bullets or guns is mostly illegal in Mexico, and, as with the guns, authorities on both sides unambiguously peg U.S. retailers as sating a recently ravenous black market hunger for ammunition. Whereas the buying and smuggling of American military assault-type rifles carry some risk of smugglers being found out, ammunition is so loosely regulated that Mexican smugglers are simply dropping over on three-day shopping visas to cruise a bounty of stores within the 25-mile deep commercial zone. The visas allow them to wander, judging by a smattering of federal court cases I’ve been able to locate and study. One of these involved a well-oiled ring of bullet smugglers who’d used their day visas to bring in more than 80,000 rounds in a short time.
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Todd Bensman is an investigative reporter based in San Antonio. He can be reached at todd.bensman@gmail.com.
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48 Comments
1. vivo:“Authorities believe one of the nation’s busiest ammunition smuggling corridors runs through South Texas because of the state’s dearth of regulations and a proliferation of gun merchants in the densely populated regions close to the Mexican border.”
Something’s wrong with this picture . . .
“Because of the absence of mandatory or voluntary controls on ammo sales by socially concerned bullet merchants, federal agents on the hunt for smuggling-minded Mexican shoppers will remain hard pressed to cut this gusher of a supply line.”
You reap what you sow.
Bottom line: entrepreneurial greed.
Mar 5, 2009 - 10:52 pm 2. robotech master:Hey easy fix for this that will solve all the trafficking problems from guns to bullets to slaves and drugs… shut down the border… o wait Ruben Navarrette Jr. demands it stay open and unguarded. Plus by heavily punishing US citizens for mexico’s problem which they only have themselves to blame for obama can in effect backdoor revoke the 2nd Amendment… something he badly wants to do.
Mar 5, 2009 - 10:57 pm 3. ILikeIke:Ironic that this article appears next to the Instapundit link box, which is celebrating “National Ammo Day.”
“It is a nationwide BUYcott of ammunition. You buy ammunition. 100 Rounds a person.”
Yeah!
Mar 6, 2009 - 1:36 am 4. HereWeGo:And the gungrabbers will now cry that we must have ammo that is serial numbered and registered/limited/outlawed etc. due to the fact that our border with Mexico is a joke.
Mar 6, 2009 - 1:38 am 5. fear Obama:Great!
At least one part of the economy is booming.
To all Mexican Drug Cartel gun users.
Buy American!
/never know what the Chinese might put in a shell casing.
Mar 6, 2009 - 2:49 am 6. eon:Once more, we see that our “enlightened, progressive leaders” are coming up with another ploy to disarm the American people.
The idea of taxing or restricting ammunition sales to civilians, by means of exorbitant taxation (such as the recently-resurfaced demand for a 1000% tax on “crime bullets”, like 9 x 19mm), and outright bans on “cop killer” bullets (that actually are already illegal – for anyone but the government) are two of the standard tricks in the gun-banners’ golf bag. The old excuse was “Do It For The Children”- now it’s “Do It For Mexico”. I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’m not.
Violence in a culture which glorifies same, wherever that culture may be, is unlikely to be affected one way or another by what we do here in the U.S. in terms of laws, bans, and discrimination against people whom “enlightened” people like Mr. Bensmen just don’t happen to like. (I’m referring to gun owners, here, not Mexicans.) And the fanatics on the “death to the 2nd Amendment” side have never let awkward things like facts get in the way of their “holy quest”- Google “Michael Bellesiles”.
With this in mind, here are a few facts (as if the author of this hit piece were even interested in same):
1. There are few if any “U.S. made” rifles in 7.62 x 39mm Kalashnikov. And those that are generally do not take high-capacity magazines. Of four that I know of, three are manual bolt-actions- hardly “assault weapons” except in the fevered imaginations of people who only know guns from Hollywood epics.
2. The 7.62 and .223 ammunition you can legally buy in the U.S. is not armor-piercing- it’s prohibited to civilans in this country, period. In fact, you can’t even buy surplus steel-cored military ammunition in 7.62 x 39- it was prohibited for importation by BATF in 1985, and the only American-made ammunition of this type is “sterilized” (i.e., no headstamp and non-traceable) ammunition made by a specific U.S. government-owned factory, used by the government for “black” operations by the military- and is also illegal for civilian use or possession. The same holds true for .223 (5.56 x 45mm NATO) ammunition. So don’t bother trying to find it at your local stocking dealer- he won’t have any, and might just call the local authorities if you ask about it.(I would.)
3. 5.7 x 33mm ammuntion with armor-penetrating bullets is, again, a government-only item in the U.S. Since that caliber is mainly used by the likes of the Secret Service, the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, police tactical teams, and some military special operations units, your chances of running into it in anyone else’s hands by way of a legal dealer are about as good as your chances of getting to the Moon by taking a running jump off your roof.
4. Any gun dealer who has a customer with no valid ID who wnts to buy over five grand worth of ammuntion of a single type is going to call BATF. Period. Dot. There’s a specific regulation which requires him to do so. Unfortunately, there is no regulation requiring BATF to respond to the call. Around here, it’s alomost impossible to get them to respond to a legitimate rwequest for assistance- they’re usually too busy cruising gun shows trying to catch people making a mistake on a 4473 Form so they can prosecute them. The dirty little secret of BATF (and the FBI) is that they operate under an informal, but very real, “quota system”. They judge a field office’s success rate not by the quality of cases they prosecute, but by the quantity. Simply put, the more cases in total number they can “clear” in a given fiscal year, the better it looks in front of Congress at that Holy of Holies, Budget Time. In short, given the choice between spending a year trying to put one lawyered-up narcotraficante’ behind bars, and spending that time prosecuting fifty or so people on imagined “procedural violations” (which BATF is allowed to claim the existence of, but not required to define in court- a classic Catch-22), who don’t have lawyers, can’t afford them, and will probably plead guilty and pay a fine just to get the Kafkaesque nightmare over with, I guarantee you the BATF boys will go for the fifty or so “easy kills” every single time. As I said, quantity, not quality.
I know all this from previous experience in this field, specifically in law enforcement (CSI, ballistics).
Once more, we see that a columnist who knows nothing of firearms except that he (A) hates them, and (B) hates law-abiding citizens who own them, has used the civil war in Mexico to attack those issues here in the U.S. And that as usual, he has betrayed not only his ignorance of the subject, but also his unwillingness to even do basic resaerch and get his facts straight bbefore writing his hit piece. But judging by the present climate in Wahington and other environs of our “intellectual elite”, I expect much more of this in the near future, as The One pushes for a “solution to our gun problem” once and for all.
One on his terms, of course. Which I am sure Mr. Bensman will say still won’t go far enough to suit him.
clear ether
eon
Mar 6, 2009 - 3:12 am 7. Die Fledermaus:Nobody is legally buying fully automatic weapons in the U.S. and smuggling them into Mexico. The supply available for private purchases was fixed in 1986, and the process is lengthy and very tightly regulated. Only the military or LE can buy new automatic weapons. So if automatic weapons are proliferating at the border, the only certainties are that they’re NOT coming from private citizens in the U.S. and further regulation of those private citizens will not reduce the prevalence of those weapons one iota. Automatic weapons in Mexico are FAR more likely to come from outside the U.S. altogether. Legal arms sales in the U.S. are irrelevant to any automatic weapons problem on the border. Since anti-gunners oppose privately owned firearms, period, they focus on targets they can hit – legal sales of non-automatic weapons – instead of those they can’t hit – illegal non-U.S. sales. They’re lying through their teeth, as they have done for decades. The statistics, the hard numbers, have always been on the side of the pro-gunners, and the skew is stronger in their favor now than it has been for many years. For anti-gunners, however, feelings trump numbers every time.
All of these problems are soluble simply by enforcing the laws that are already on the books and/or controlling the border. That the shrieking nitwits on the anti-gun side will do neither speaks volumes about their actual intentions. It’s ALL about control, but gun-control is just a piece of it – a key piece, to be sure, but still only one piece of the whole picture.
Mar 6, 2009 - 3:30 am 8. Broadsword:Hey, ees OK. Almost eeny day now, Senor Obama-ieerez will invent booleets with boomerangs for brass. Den deez drug piples sneeking into Los Estados Unidos weel haf dey own asses shot away by de booleets. Sure a good thin’ de border no haz no fences. We don’t like doz stinkin’ fences. It interferes weeth de drug business. We droog runners, we not greedy tho, nope…nots us.
Mar 6, 2009 - 3:41 am 9. Mike T:And you know what happened to the meth trade? Nothing. The labs moved out of the United States into Mexico where they could operate unchecked by American law enforcement. So all we did was shift the production from mom-and-pop labs in rural communities to Mexican super meth labs while inconveniencing people looking for cold symptom relief.
Mar 6, 2009 - 4:54 am 10. Byron Dickens:Maybe Mexico needs to take steps to make its border more secure.
Mar 6, 2009 - 5:04 am 11. Vinny Vidivici:Oh, the irony. Folks who have no problem with people voting without proof of citizenship or think ’sanctuary cities’ in defiance of the law is a form of compassion are miffed by ammo retailers who don’t check for proof of citizenship.
I see no articles blaming ‘countries of origin’ for Mexican and Central American gang activity in the U.S., or the large population of illegals in U.S. prisons. Yet somehow, the U.S. is responsible for foreign drug dealers offing one another on foreign soil. Go figure.
This is just another ‘blame America’ double standard, and more ‘if-we-take-away-the-guns-(ammo)-there’d-be-no-violence’ daydreaming. That and a good dose of agenda ‘journalism’; flimsey parallels (the Constitution says nothing about cold medicine) and rationales for interfering with second amendment right.
At least in the case of ammo sales to illegals, we’re making money off this particular infringement of our sovereignty.
Build the wall. And make it legal to ship ‘em more ammo, too. Helps reduce the trade balance.
Mar 6, 2009 - 6:03 am 12. ken magalnik:Legalize drugs, Deprive the gangs of income, and they wont buy ammo.
Use the extra tax revenue to bail out whomever it is fashionable to bail out this week.
Mar 6, 2009 - 6:41 am 13. tinfoilhatter:“9. Byron Dickens:
Maybe Mexico needs to take steps to make its border more secure.”
BAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHBAHHHHABBAHHHHHH!
Tell me that one again.
Mar 6, 2009 - 7:00 am 14. bob:I’m disappointed to see this kind of shoddy work and ideologically driven material on pajamasmedia. Sure Mexico’s problems deserve attention, but using code words like “sniper rifle”, “cop killer”, “assult-gun” or the typo that only anti-gunners seem to make “.9 mm” [clue, most needles are larger than this], says a lot more about the author than the story.
Mar 6, 2009 - 7:05 am 15. Keith_Indy:They could stop people with temporary visas from buying ammo, but then all they have to do is get the mexican gangs with members here buy the ammo for them.
Mar 6, 2009 - 7:07 am 16. Spade:” 5.7 caliber “cop killer” rounds that, fired from a handgun, can punch through police body armor”
I own a PS90 that fires 5.7mm ammo. Neither the SS195 or SS197 rounds that you can buy in a store are armor piercing. Try actually reading a spec sheet
“.50 caliber sniper rounds that can cut through concrete buildings.”? Really? Because at range a single M2 round is only going to go about an inch into concrete. Hardly “cutting through concrete buildings”.
Mr. Bensman, do you actually know anything about firearms and ammunition? Or are you just talking out of your ass?
Mar 6, 2009 - 7:41 am 17. Fantom:I pay cash for my ammo and guns too. Who in their right mind would leave a paper trail for the obama gun grabbing brown shirts to follow?
I suspect that the drug cartel gets most of their weapons and ammo from any of the leftist/marxist banana republics in the central americas. Why pay high prices to Americans when you have friends with cuba contacts and friends in the mexican army who no doubt divert many truckloads for nada .
This article reeks of leftist gun grabbing propaganda. Just what B.O. ordered.
Mar 6, 2009 - 7:48 am 18. MarkD:So how does the author explain that amunition in all calibers, even .22 LR, is in short supply throughout the entire United States? Does he believe they’re sending Mexican mules to Syracuse, NY to empty the shelves at Dick’s sporting goods? I rather think that many people are losing faith in the government’s ability to protect them, and are taking steps to provide for their own security.
Oh, and it is illegal for civilians to own military caliber weapons in Mexico. So, if the Mexican government would enforce their laws, and our government would enforce its own immigration laws, this problem would be solved. I remain unconvinced that another law is anything other than a backdoor attempt at disarming the populace. No sale, sir.
Mar 6, 2009 - 8:14 am 19. Thomas:Hey Mexico,
Try enforcing the law on your side of the border……
Oh wait that would require integrity, and work…..
Mar 6, 2009 - 8:21 am 20. Wade:I would like to find any store that has even 1000 rounds of .223 in stock, much less 5000. They are in short supply across the country, not just along the border and not because they are being smuggled anywhere but because people like me want to make sure we have a supply of ammunition for our firearms in the event that this disinformation scheme works. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bensman followed an administration script to write this “investigative” piece. It would be interesting to see if there are not articles in every city along the Mexican border which follows the same outline and includes the same talking points.
Mar 6, 2009 - 8:23 am 21. H. Coburn:Can’t really add much to the comments posted before this one. Yea, how about the USA follow it’s own Constitution, and secure it’s borders.
Mar 6, 2009 - 8:34 am 22. Caleb:Then, how about Mexico’s hopelessly corrupt, inept government follow it’s own rules and secure it’s border? Pretty basic common sense, in my opinion, but then again we are dealing with two national governments, and common sense doesn’t have much place in government these days.
Likening potential restrictions on ammo to the restrictions on buying Sudafed is uh…not smart. Mostly because no one can cite a single instance where the “Meth Reduction” law has actually successfully reduced the spread and sale of meth in the US.
Mar 6, 2009 - 9:30 am 23. FreddyB:There was a Pajamas Media article about police buying up the ammo because they are adding paramilitary units:
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/nationwide-ammunition-shortage-hits-us/
Mar 6, 2009 - 9:30 am 24. Nate from Ogden:I’m doing my part to reduce the availability of ammunition for smuggling into Mexico by stockpiling those calibers for myself. Every case I can buy won’t end up in Mexico, I assure you of that!
And Bob and MarkD and numerous others have it correct- this is the shoddiest bit of writing I have ever seen on PajamasMedia. Pathetic for any number of factual errors and the anti-gun and anti-ammo slant is transparent and despicable.
Our government needs to protect it’s own borders, demand that Mexico do the same and treat illegal activity for what it is and prosecute with vigor.
Mar 6, 2009 - 9:50 am 25. DirtCrashr:The border with Mexico is shovel-ready, it’s a stimulus waiting to happen and it will stimulate the Mexicans too.
Mar 6, 2009 - 10:42 am 26. colin wilkinson:We wouldn’t have to worry about smuggling bullets if we had drug peace. Low profits to spend on the defense of their no longer illegal business means peace on the border.
Mar 6, 2009 - 11:10 am 27. Rignerd:All over America people seem to be buying all the 5.56/.223, 7.62×39 and 7.62×51/.308 ammo they can find and I doubt that much of it makes it across the border, unless some illegal beats an American stock piler to it first.
There is no drawback to American Citizens in securing the border.
Democrats on the other hand will lose a voting block and a victim group to exploit.
Mar 6, 2009 - 11:15 am 28. John:Ammo is selling out all over the country, not just near the border. Bensman would know that if he weren’t a provincial twerp. Anyone who uses a gun for anything, business or pleasure, is buying up as much as they can afford. There are many reasons for this. Mexican violence being the least of them. Oh, yeah, and, WTF, Pajamas?! Are you so hard up for content that you gotta publish this guys’ crap? Have some friggn’ dignity, for chrissakes. Geeze…
Mar 6, 2009 - 12:50 pm 29. Oscar the Grump:What’s going on, why is everybody on an ammo buying binge?
Mar 6, 2009 - 3:28 pm 30. John S:Mexico tells us “If you take weapons across the border….
* You will become on of the dozens of U.S./Foreign citizens arrested each month for violating Mexico’s strict firearm and ammunition laws, whether you knew about the law or not;
…
Remember, once you cross the border with a firearm or ammunition it is too late! Ignorance of this law will not get you leniency from the police. You will be arrested and sent to jail. Also, the Mexican judicial system is governed by Napoleonic Law which states that you are presumed guilty and must prove your innocence, the opposite of the U.S. laws.”
(Mexonline.com).
But perhaps that doesn’t apply to criminals, just relatively innocent tourists. Perhaps Mr. Bensman might inquire.
Mar 6, 2009 - 6:50 pm 31. E. Kant:Apparently the 7.62×39mm (cartridge) bullet is not popular enough to warrant its own picture at the top of this article. You have a thumbnail image of M855 bullets used in 5.56 chamberings.
Mar 6, 2009 - 7:38 pm 32. John Moore:At my local gun store, the shelves are emptying of weapons – not just the kind that drug gangs use, but the kind citizens use for self defense.
Ammunition is in such short supply that I have been unable to find any .380 ammo locally or nationally. Since the drug gangs have no use for .380, they aren’t the cause.
Americans are scared, and when they get scared, they get better armed. Around here (Phoenix), they are also worried about the drug violence spreading, and arming themselves against that.
As for the idea of restricting ammo – Americans are fully aware that ammo is just as important to our freedoms as firearms. So are the gun banners, and this is hardly a new idea – just a different silly reason.
Mar 6, 2009 - 10:50 pm 33. RE:Simply secure the borders and enforce existing law and the problem goes away.
But that won’t fit the narrative, so Mr Bensman must revert to his not-so-hidden agenda. It’s getting old and tired – and it’s dishonest.
Mar 7, 2009 - 7:21 am 34. RobertG:Mr. Bensmen is picking and choosing his data to fill some ugly agenda. No the 7.62X39 is not the primary weapon of the drug cartels-it is the 5.56 for the American M-16 the Mexican Army and police steal from their own to sell to the cartel’s-and sometimes the Army and police are the cartel. Yes there are a whole lot of AK 47s, clones and ammo floating around Mexico-generally smuggled in from Venezuela. Go to Cabo San Lucas with me and I’ll find you one in ten minutes–with Chinese markings. You may well find AK semiautomatics in the US from Yugoslavia and eastern Europe-I do not believe we import any from China and certainly no full automatic versions.
But back to Mr. Bensman’s agenda “”223s,” Rodriguez said, referring to ammunition that fits assault-type rifles “”. Rather clever, and dishonest term “assault-type rifles”. If I paint my Mini-14 pink will it still be an “assault-type rifle”? Yes, when I buy the .223 ammo I generally buy at least a brick, often a case. Either Mr. Bensman does not know what that means or he is being less than honest, whatever his agenda.
We on the border are stocking up on ammo as it the rest of America, stocking up on parts too for the same reason we did under the Clinton Administration: the “assault-type rifle” ban and President Obama’s promised tax on ammunition. But I am sure, I KNOW, Mr. Bensman knows that. As I said he has one ugly agenda, the truth be damned.
“ammunition is so loosely regulated” but not loosely enough regulated Sir “I can’t wipe my butt without government help” Bensman. You sir are not on disingenuous, you are weak.
Mar 7, 2009 - 10:13 am 35. kjohns2001:Using Mexico’s problems with the drug cartels is the newest round in the propaganda war on law abiding American citizens who own firearms and buy ammunition for them. If the border was secured there would be no problem, but Obama and the liberal Democrats have a vested interest in keeping the border wide open to let in more illegal voters who will of course vote Democratic. This article is just another of the ’scare’ tactics in use to try and undermine the second amendment rights of the American people.
Mar 7, 2009 - 1:10 pm 36. Oscar the Grump:There was an article in the LA Times about how arrest of illegals is down with the explanation being the bad economy. I think that maybe its the current gun battles going south of the border. Its time to chip in and send more bullets to Mexico.
Mar 8, 2009 - 6:21 pm 37. Peter:The funny thing is that I can’t even get primers to make my own ammo. I shoot CAS, Cowboy Action Shooting. I’m in Northeast Texas and it’s damned hard to buy enough primers to go to two shoots a month, each shoot requires a hundred and twenty rounds of handgun and pistol cartridge rifle rounds. Add twenty five or so shotgun rounds.
So, if this writer is telling the truth, Dick’ and Academy and the other outfits are sending all their stock to Laredo because it sure isn’t up here. I don’t get down there much, but I really suspect that the writer is somewhat loose with his facts.
Finally, persactly why is it my responibility if Mexico cannot control her border with the United States? Please use small words. Seems if Mexico wants to stop her people from coming over and buying ammo, they could put up a fence.
Mar 8, 2009 - 10:23 pm 38. Austin:My guess is that most of the ammo is going to the Mexican black market and into the hands of Mexcans who own guns to protect themselves.
Let’s fix the problem:
Legalize drugs in the USA and legalize guns in Mexico.
That way the cartels collapse and Mexicans can legally defend themselves against criminals.
Mar 9, 2009 - 12:41 pm 39. Wesley:Number of points here. Let us start with Byron’ comment (#10 above):
“Maybe Mexico needs to take steps to make its border more secure.”
Interesting point, I have never been stopped and searched nor have I ever seen ANYONE being stopped and searched GOING into Mexico. Perhaps that would be a good start.
A report issued by Reuters, noted this:
“Cartel hitmen are often arrested with the likes of grenades, powerful machine guns and rocket launchers capable of bringing down helicopters. Those weapons dwarf the pistols and rifles usually carried by police and the army.”(1)
Strange, I am an informed gun owner, member of the nasty NRA, former FFL (Federal Firearms License) holder and I don’t know anywhere you can purchase “Grenades,” “Machine guns” and “Rocket Launchers.” But they are available on the BLACK MARKET, you know, the same one that handles Heroin, Meth, Cocaine and such.
Another interesting article notes: (Talking about the .50 cal rifles)
“[H]owever, we cannot recall even one instance of these powerful weapons being used in an attack against another cartel or against a Mexican government target. . .That Mexican cartels have not used these devastating weapons is surprising. There are in fact very few weapons in the arsenals of cartel enforcers that we have not seen used, including hand grenades, 40 mm grenades, LAW rockets and rocket-propelled grenades.”(2)
Once again, these are not things you can buy at Academy. Sounds like the Mexican border patrol are letting the occasional smuggler operate with impunity.
Maybe if the Mexican Government would make narotics and smuggling illegal, we might be willing to help a little more. I wonder why the Mexican government can’t use the $200 MILLION dollars they seized (3) Or the 1.4 BILLION dollars that The US is giving for security? (4)
When will it end? Perhaps when the profit motive is taken away from the black marketeers, say maybe the same way the end of prohabition ended the reign of the Gangster in the 1930’s? When was the last time you heard about someone being gunned down for illegal booze in the United States?
Legalize drugs? What is the lesser of the two evils, Prohibiting individuals from putting “illegal” chemicals into their bodies, or “Fighting the drug war” with all the loss of freedoms we have had to endure in its name?
1. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28445902.htm
Mar 10, 2009 - 1:21 am 40. Stan:2. http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20081112_worrying_signs_border_raids
3. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/03/26/gun.smuggling/index.html
4. http://blogs.chron.com/txpotomac/2009/01/obama_targets_texas_gun_smuggl.html
Racist article. Not all Hispanics are members of the drug cartels. People of all races all over the US are stockpiling ammunition. This is happening because of the coming infringements planned by the new administration and the Democrats. This is an activity of the good citizens of the US.
Mar 10, 2009 - 9:33 pm 41. SteveM:If we had an actual border in this country we would not need to worry about people from Mexico coming up here, buying cases of ammo, and driving back to Mexico.
But for some reason Mr Bensman point-blank refuses to address that very obvious issue.
Mar 12, 2009 - 10:37 am 42. oldsgt:these gun control nuts and news reporter are full of b.s about 10% of these guns come out of the u.s most of the gun are coming in the back door of mixico like ak 47, rpg 7, russia made hand grenades this out of stockpils of guns and ammunition back in the cold war times. out of cuba , nicaragua, honduras, they need money too and will sale these war toys anyone who has the bucks and the u.s intell- know this and military know it too, the news need to tell the truth about the backdoor blackmarket to the drug cartel
Mar 12, 2009 - 9:17 pm 43. rosignol:What’s going on, why is everybody on an ammo buying binge?
We’ve got a Democratic House, a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic President from Chicago.
These guys view the 2nd A as obsolete. The Heller decision was a setback, but they’ll find a way around it, and a lot of people are thinking they might try to impose a substantial tax on ammunition. So they’re stocking up now.
Mar 13, 2009 - 1:57 am 44. rosignol:Oh, and it’s not just ‘near the border’. Ammo sales are up everywhere and in just about every caliber.
The author is demonstrating a severe case of confirmation bias- he’s found data that supports his premise (ammo sales are up near the border!), and is ignoring the data that suggests his premise is wrong (…ammo sales are up everywhere else, too!).
Mar 13, 2009 - 2:01 am 45. Bill:Wonder how they are missing this?
MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
Drug cartels’ new weaponry means war
By Ken Ellingwood and Tracy Wilkinson
“These groups appear to be taking advantage of a robust global black market and porous borders, especially between Mexico and Guatemala. Some of the weapons are left over from the wars that the United States helped fight in Central America, U.S. officials said.
“There is an arms race between the cartels,” said Alberto Islas, a security consultant who advises the Mexican government. “One group gets rocket-propelled grenades, the other has to have them.”"
Mar 14, 2009 - 2:34 am 46. Larry:Mexican Cartels are also enjoying the reloading hobby, because components are hard to find.
May 10, 2009 - 4:17 pm 47. Jordan:No matter how posible it is to actually build a full auto rifle from parts her in the US through mail order, than bring the rifle across the border, it is still cheaper and still much less trouble to aquire Czec, Chinese, Egyptian full auto rifles, or rifles from South American countries! Any of these foreign distributers will sell a cartel 5 guns for what it would cost to ileegally build a rifle from parts here in the US, and with much less trouble! The only reason the cartels would still choose to build an illegal full auto or purchase a leagal semi-auto rifle in the US probably are being paid to do so by individuals in our system who want to wreak havoc on our second amendment rights! As for ammo buyouts, you should not be allowed to drive, have healthcare or an education without being a US citizen. And we should inspect vehicles going south as well as vehicles going north! No you can’t pose limits on qty of ammo purchased per individual as many of us high power target shooters and off time police sharpshooters need lots of ammo per purchase as they shoot a lot to hone their skills!!!
Jul 1, 2009 - 6:20 pm 48. jackson:No matter how posible it is to actually build a full auto rifle from parts her in the US through mail order, than bring the rifle across the border, it is still cheaper and still much less trouble to aquire Czec, Chinese, Egyptian full auto rifles, or rifles from South American countries! Any of these foreign distributers will sell a cartel 5 guns for what it would cost to ileegally build a rifle from parts here in the US, and with much less trouble! The only reason the cartels would still choose to build an illegal full auto or purchase a leagal semi-auto rifle in the US probably are being paid to do so by individuals in our system who want to wreak havoc on our second amendment rights! As for ammo buyouts, you should not be allowed to drive, have healthcare or an education without being a US citizen. And we should inspect vehicles going south as well as vehicles going north! No you can’t pose limits on qty of ammo purchased per individual as many of us high power target shooters and off time police sharpshooters need lots of ammo per purchase as they shoot a lot to hone their skills!!!
Jul 1, 2009 - 6:24 pm