Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan: U.S. Supplies 90% Of Cartel’s Guns
In a conversation with CBS News’ Bob Schieffer, Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan argued against doubts raised by the National Rifle Association that ninety percent of all assault weapons seized in northern Mexican originate from the United States.
“Ninety percent of all weapons we are seizing in Mexico, Bob, are coming from across the United States,” he said, citing the high number of Federal firearms licenses a few miles north of the border. “Just on the Arizona and Texas borders with Mexico alone there are approximately 7,000 FFLs, federal firearms licensees. And weapons bought by the drug syndicates, directly or proxy purchases, are coming from those gun shops.”
“We seized more than 250 assault weapons and half-a-million rounds of ammo, these have just crossed over the border,” he went on to say. “By tracing back these weapons, by looking at the type of weapons, we determined that most of these weapons are coming from the United States.”
Although many Americans want it to be different, the drug (gang) problem in Mexico is an regional rather than purely Mexican problem. The United States suffers from it because Mexican drug traders export their product to America, where citizens become addicted on expensive and terribly destructive drugs. At the same time, the drug gangs are going to war with each other, because all of them want to maximize profit. This violence ruins entire towns in Mexico – to make matters even worse, the violence has spilled over the border. The drugs are produced in Mexico and sold in the United States. Gangs fight with each other in Mexico (mostly), with American guns.
This is a U.S.-Mexican problem. It can only be dealt with if both sides understand the role they play and take action accordingly.
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As reported by foxnews:
In 2007-2008, according to ATF Special Agent William Newell, Mexico submitted 11,000 guns to the ATF for tracing. Close to 6,000 were successfully traced — and of those, 90 percent — 5,114 to be exact, according to testimony in Congress by William Hoover — were found to have come from the U.S.
But in those same two years, according to the Mexican government, 29,000 guns were recovered at crime scenes.
In other words, 68 percent of the guns that were recovered were never submitted for tracing.