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Report: US Not Doing Enough Against Gunrunning

TFred

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/18/report-doing-gunrunning/

Report: US Not Doing Enough Against Gunrunning

WASHINGTON -- Two federal agencies are being faulted for not coordinating their efforts against border gunrunners, a failure one lawmaker says made it easier for Mexican drug cartels to smuggle illegal weapons from the United States.

The Government Accountability Office criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for not working together to stop the flow of guns into Mexico.

In testimony prepared for a House subcommittee hearing, the GAO noted that the two agencies only recently stepped up their coordination with each other and with their Mexican counterparts to stop gunrunning along the border.

Rep. Eliot Engel, who chairs the subcommittee, said there should have been an anti-gunrunning strategy in place since October 2007, when the U.S. and Mexico agreed to the joint cartel-fighting Merida initiative.

"It is mind-boggling that for a year and a half, we have had no interagency strategy to address this major problem, but instead have relied on uncoordinated efforts by a variety of agencies," Engel, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Engel said the firearms flowing illegally from the U.S. into Mexico have made the drug cartels' jobs easier.

Engel's subcommittee was to meet on Thursday, but was delayed by other House business.

ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said the two agencies pride themselves "on the strength of our relationships with law enforcement partners at every level and throughout the country."

Nantel said, "The Southwest Border is clearly one of the most important areas where we rely on these relationships to improve safety and security."

Citing ATF data, investigator Jess T. Ford said that over the past three years, more than 90 percent of the firearms traced after being seized in Mexico have come from the U.S. The figure is slightly less over a five-year period.

"While it is impossible to know how many firearms are illegally trafficked into Mexico in a given year, over 20,000, or around 87 percent, of firearms seized by Mexican authorities and traced over the past five years originated in the United States," the GAO's Ford said in testimony prepared for Congress.

The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress.
 

TFred

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Citing ATF data, investigator Jess T. Ford said that over the past three years, more than 90 percent of the firearms traced after being seized in Mexico have come from the U.S. The figure is slightly less over a five-year period.

"While it is impossible to know how many firearms are illegally trafficked into Mexico in a given year, over 20,000, or around 87 percent, of firearms seized by Mexican authorities and traced over the past five years originated in the United States," the GAO's Ford said in testimony prepared for Congress.
And didn't someone recently debunk these numbers? Something about only a very small percentage were actually able to be traced... and of those that were, most were from the US... simply because we're the only ones who actually keep records... ? Am I remembering that right? If so, why is this "investigator" guy using these misleading statistics?

TFred
 

The Donkey

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+1

GAO reports are usually pretty well balanced. Would be interesting to see if this statistic originates in a report, and what the report says.
 

Dutch Uncle

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The GAO studies may or may not be "balanced" but the reporting in our media and the massaging of the data by the antis in the gov't certainly aren't . I don't have to beat that dead horse. As I understand it, indeed the number of illegal, black market guns in Mexico is unknown. The overwhelming majority RECOVERED are military-style weapons from former east-block states, or other arms rich countries that need money. Another large source is Mexico's own armed forces. Their desertion rate is phenomenal, something like 10% a year! The "liberated" troops, upon clearing their stations, take their firearms with them, as they can be sold on the black market for muchos pesos. So when a warehouse of contraband guns is found, a small percentage (with unaltered #'s) can actually be traced. 90% of such traceable guns come from the US. As another poster explained, this is because we keep reliable data on such things.

As to why an "investgator" from the GAO should report such things in a misleading way....... well, he may belong to a group or party that has an agenda to mislead the public, most of whom don't read beyond the headlines, the headlines being authored by our "unbiased" media.
 

6L6GC

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makes me wonder how many illegals entered the country while the hard core federal agents were harassing legal citizens at the Showplace in Richmond????

OPPS!!!! I almost forgot. Let me try that again in a government approved tone of voice:


BAA BAA BAA BAA
 

The Donkey

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Fromfriday's NRA-ILA news release:

With regard to the "87 percent" statistic, the report's figures make clear that BATFE only traces a fraction of the guns seized. Those firearms are not selected randomly, but are likely selected because they are the guns most likely to have come from the U.S. Trace data reveals nothing about the large number of guns that are not traced.

The report also states "According to U.S. and Mexican government officials, these firearms have been increasingly more powerful and lethal in recent years. For example, many of these firearms are high-caliber and high-powered, such as AK and AR-15 type semiautomatic rifles." The report, however, states that about 25 percent of firearms traced were of that type, which works out to only eight percent of all firearms seized.
 
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