Mexico & gun control again...

[BigBluenoser]

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1915327,00.html

"The camcorder shakes as it films the thud of thick .50 caliber bullets ripping through a steel plate target in the heat of the Arizona desert. Panning across the jagged rocks and cacti, the camera then focuses on the shooter: a smiling Mexican sitting down on the dust as he uses both hands to fire the huge state-of-the-art weapon that can tear through tank armor. He was the happy customer, having bought the killing machine from an Arizona gun shop for about $21,000. The grainy video was seized by ATF agents in a raid on a weapon traffickers' safe house in Yuma. One man in the film was arrested and faces charges. But the man who showed off his shooting on the video is believed to be south of the border using the cannon-like gun to wage Mexico's relentless drug war."

I'm in a hurry and don't have much to add... but eeez back!!

[Hangingon]

1. All the ordinance is not coming from the US

The big story in the Corpus Christi Caller Times this weekend involved a South Korean made grenade that did not detonate when used by a gang member. The story mentioned other cases where grenades from this lot were used. The grenades were obtained from the Mexican military.

Sadly the border war is going to be nasty. I was in Neuvo Laredo last week - for the first time in about 3 years - and the down turn in business is evident.

In the case of the Barret - which is unusual - if the gun shop sold the weapon without checking or sold to a known gang member the owner should lose his ffl. There is plenty of illegality along the border. This morning's edition of the Caller Times carries an AP story on he rise in busts of corrupt U.S. border police all along the Southern border.

[slackmaster]

2. "...state-of-the-art weapon that can tear through tank armor..."

What a bunch of crap.

K&U for abuse of hyperbole.

:kick:

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. If you interpret 'tank' to be the armored cars used by the Mexican

police and military against the cartels, it is entirely appropriate. You see one of those vehicles coming at you and you think, 'tank'.

Their armor is as good as any WW1 tank, and perfectly adequate against normal civilian munitions.

[slackmaster]

6. Maybe Mexico should make an effort to control its border

:hi:

[iverglas]

13. well that was a sequitur

not.

[benEzra]

10. A lightly armored scout car is not a "tank" any more than a Cessna 172 is a "fighter."

Yes, the Cessna 172 can outperform a World War I Sopwith Camel; that still doesn't make it a fighter.

A deer rifle shooting tungsten-core rounds could penetrate the armor of a World War I tank, too.

Single rounds from a .50 BMG, even using military-only restricted API ammunition (e.g., Raufoss rounds) cannot penetrate the armor of any tank in service anywhere on this planet. Period.

[Jackson1999]

4. Oh brother

Is there any proof to support that statement, "Such weapons — especially Kalashnikovs and AR15s — are behind the vast majority of Mexican gang-killings." I have never seen a stat like that.

The thing that kills me about journalism today is that reporters roll over and take claims at face value. I am sure some Mexican official told the reporter this, and they did no follow up to confirm it.

[jeepnstein]

5. They paid how much for it?

That kind of money for a rifle with such limited uses? They have more money than anything else at this point.

[AtheistCrusader]

7. Since when does a .50 cost $21,000?

Doesn't the WindRunner start at like... 7k?

[X_Digger]

8. Maybe a $7,000 scope? hehe, b/t

[AtheistCrusader]

9. I've seen some with optics that cost more than the rifle.

Craaaaazy man

[iverglas]

11. maybe when you're a foreign criminal

buying it from a gun trafficker?

The comment that they have more money than whatever, above, is absolutely correct.

Dollars earned from trafficking drugs - smuggling them into the US and selling them there, Mexicans taking dollars from US-based smugglers in Mexico - have to be spent somewhere on something.

Money is being laundered by purchasing firearms in the US to be trafficked into Mexico. Or, at the other end, into Canada.

[iverglas]

12. "They have more money than anything else at this point" (jeepnstein)

http://www.grip.org/bdg/g1659.html

OAS Convention Against Illicit Firearms Trafficking

Article XIII: Exchange of Information

1. States Parties shall exchange among themselves, in conformity with their respective domestic laws and applicable treaties, relevant information on matters such as:

... e. techniques, practices, and legislation to combat money laundering related to illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other related materials.

That's exactly what is going on.

Canadian organized crime does the same thing: pot out, coke and guns in.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

14. How do they know where he got his .50 cal?

[iverglas]

15. who knows, Dave?

Maybe they read the OP ...

No, I know. They lied.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

16. Can you point out in the OP where they mention his disposition?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

18. As usual you are mistaken, I've read the OP it's not there.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

19. and you accuse people of not being able to read. You really are funny.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

21. Might as well ask again. Did you read the OP before you told me to?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

23. Still waiting on you to show off those reading skills.

[E-Mag]

17. I like the belted ammo for a rifle that does not use it N/T

[pipoman]

20. Why is every problem south of the US border

up to the US to fix with absolutely no mention or demands put on the Mexican government to fix their fucked up country. It is the Mexican government's policies which keeps Mexico in the 3rd world. It is time for tough love with them. Most loving parents wouldn't allow their 25 year old son to live in their basement without a job doing coke all day and only coming upstairs to get free food and more money to buy coke but this seems to be the US policy with Mexico.

[lovecanada56035]

22. Geez, it's incredible how crazy things are south of the border

I blame the US arms industry.