Bogus Mexican gun statistics finally getting called out

I’ve listened with disgusted amazement at the people getting on TV and talking about the Mexican drug war going on making the statement that the guns and other weapons being used are coming into Mexico from the United States. It’s almost invariably linked to more gun control advocacy. I knew there was something very, very wrong in all of this when I started hearing about the types of weapons and seeing the pictures. They included fully-automatic weapons, mortars, and various explosive missiles – none of which are available in the US civilian market that’s being blamed for the guns.

Now, Fox News has done some exclusive reporting that shows this often-repeated claim is at best the repetition of dead wrong info and an outright lie at worst. Speaking of the claim repeated by Secretary of State Clinton, CA Senator Dianne Feinstein, members of the MSM and even officials at BATFE that 90% of the guns found in Mexico came through the US:

There’s just one problem with the 90 percent “statistic” and it’s a big one:

It’s just not true.

In fact, it’s not even close. The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S.

You see, the fact is that of the guns Mexico turned over to us to see if they were from the US, 90% of those were, in fact, ID’d as coming from the United States. The problem for the statistic comes when you find out that during the collection period where those guns were found at Mexican crime scenes, the Mexican police recovered 4 times as many guns that weren’t sent to us:

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. And when you weed out the roughly 6,000 guns that could not be traced from the remaining 32 percent, it means 83 percent of the guns found at crime scenes in Mexico could not be traced to the U.S.

Short & sweet, the “90% of guns recovered in Mexican crime scenes came out of America” claim is sheer crap, as bogus as the day is long. Enough, already. I have no issue with helping the Mexican government out but their problems with crime didn’t start with the US and they’re not being supported by our firearms market. I would suggest that those persons concerned with what’s going on down there stick to the facts and work to resolve the real issues. Leave the “blame America for the guns” meme behind.