Still curious about the Arizona/Mexico gun smuggling issue

[Maine_Nurse]

Ok, I've looked all around different boards of all types. Lots of people are beginning to get curious about this but nobody has an answer and nothing seems to make any sense.

We've all heard about the Mexican cartels buying semi-automatic rifles here in the US then smuggling them across into Mexico.

My question is why? The real fully automatic versions are readily available outside the US for the same money or even far less than they are paying for semi's here (aside from the $10k per rifle smuggling fee that some news outlets are saying). On top of that, it is far easier to get those things across other Mexican borders than it is to cross our shared one. So they are paying way too much money and running lots of risk for semi-only versions of things they have ready access to in fully-automatic form for far less money and hassle. That isn't even counting the real assault rifles and even machine guns that they obviously have no problems obtaining from their own military.

Does anyone have a clue about this? What do they have to gain by doing it this way?
thanks

[safeinOhio]

1. They have way too much money and

risk is not in their lexicon. Just like a coke addict, they want all they can get.

[mvccd1000]

2. Perhaps the smaller, less-funded criminal gangs?

Maybe the big boys control the market on military-grade weapons and keep the little guys from acquiring any. That leaves the peons to try to smuggle hunting weapons across the border from the US?

I can't think of any other reason. I know if "I" had access to a shipping container full of fully-automatic military submachine guns, I wouldn't bother risking jail time to travel hundreds of miles for a $200 shotgun.

[friendly_iconoclast]

4. *ding,ding,ding* Folks, we have a winnah!

If you had so much cash on hand you needed a separate room to store it in, you could easily buy enough real-deal military firearms

to equip a regiment of light infantry.


The small fry and the wannabees? Not so much.

[kudzu22]

3. I think the statistics are distorted

They report that 90% of the guns traced came from the U.S. What they don't add is that only aboue 2% of the guns are even traceable. Since the third world war zones where most of the guns come from don't keep track of silly things like serial numbers, and we do, you'd expect that most of the traced guns to come from here. They want you to believe that 90% of ALL the guns in the drug wars come from here.

It reminds me of an old quote:

"There are lies, damned lies and statistics." -- Mark Twain

[lawodevolution]

6. even if the gun control groups were not lying about the 90% number

Mexico needs to copy our guns laws not the other way around. Even if all their crime guns came from the USA, I will not yield any rights, they need to change their laws and if the US feels responsible, legalize the real cause of the violence

[beevul]

5. It depends who "they" is.

"What do they have to gain by doing it this way"

It depends who "they" is. No doubt, someone gains by weapons smuggled and traced back to American sellers.

Your mission is to ask yourself who benefits from that.

[TheWraith]

7. Simply put, these stories are wildly overplayed.

They cherry pick the statistic that 90% of the guns submitted for tracing came from the US, but forget to mention that the Mexican government only submitted the 20% or so they thought might have been US guns. That leaves the actual rate somewhere around 17% of the guns in Mexico coming from the US.

Not counting, of course, the fully-automatic US milspec M4 carbines in the short-barreled rifle configuration and featuring the underslung 40mm grenade launchers... but those don't count, because we're selling them to the Mexican Army to battle the cartels, and they're turning around and selling or stealing them to the cartels themselves.

I would bet you that many of the guns which ARE recovered that came from the US were probably black-marketed to people other than the cartels: small local gangs, civilians looking for protection, etcetera. The cartels don't have to buy retail--they have enough money to build their own entire manufacturing plants for weapons.

[petronius]

8. Perhaps it's just easier? They have plenty of cash, and the other end of Mexico

is really far away. Maybe they just don't need/want fully automatic weapons in any quantity, so buying quality semi-auto guns close to their 'business area' makes sense?

[PavePusher]

10. "...the other end of Mexico is really far away."

To people with litteral fleets of planes and boats? I don't think so...

Or did I miss the snark-opotamous?

[petronius]

11. No, I'm actually serious. For an organization in northern Mexico, the nearest other border is

1000+ straight-line miles away. They have to go into someone else's turf, deal with perhaps shady characters, and hide the goods from at least one government all the way back. On the other hand, high-quality semi-auto guns are available from reputable dealers in a safe country just a few miles away. It wouldn't surprise me if the latter option seems like less hassle.

Of course, they'll want the get 'the gun of Rambo' for the top-tier guys, but for the street soldiers? Why send the boats and planes for that when they're more useful transporting the salable product?

I could be wrong, of course - I have no special insight into Mexican drug gangs - but I'm not convinced the benefit of the genuine article would be worth the (even trivial) bother for them in their business...

[PavePusher]

12. Ummm, just where do you think a lot (most) of the drugs are coming from?

If you can easily move tons of drugs 1000+ miles, guns are a snap.

[petronius]

13. I know where the drugs are coming from, smartass. And like I said, I'm not sure it's

worth the even trivial bother, snap though it assuredly is, to pack guns in places that could be filled with more profitable drugs. Why would they not outfit their street soldiers with whatever is quickest and easiest?

[PavePusher]

14. Because the guns from the south...

would be cheaper, easier to purchase and cross borders with (easier boders), and they'd be full-auto.

Hey, criminals are businessmen too...

And apologies if I seemed snippy in my previous post, it actually sounded like you hadn't thought it through. It's something that may have happened to me once or twice...

[petronius]

15. You're definitely right, they are businessmen. If guns from the south are the

optimal cost-benefit solution, then that's what they're going to do. I'm not really convinced that local purchases aren't their best bulk-need option, but it's not an economy that I'm intimately familiar with.

(No apology needed, but thanks - snippy can be funny, and occasional sharpness is part-and-parcel of adult conversation...)

[PavePusher]

16. Indeed.

:toast:

[Katya Mullethov]

9. You need to trust your instincts

It doesn't make any sense because it was the best a bunch of treasury knobs could come up with . You will find no end of volunteers willing to help you ignore your internal bullshit meter . But I am not one of them .