The drug gangs and the corruption in Mexico are the excuse.
Occasionally you read a report that tells the truth of where the drug gangs get their weapons, but rest assured that these reports will be unusual and suppressed by the media and the government. For example:
Most of these weapons are being smuggled from Central American countries or by sea, eluding U.S. and Mexican monitors who are focused on the smuggling of semiauto- matic and conventional weapons purchased from dealers in the U.S. border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
The proliferation of heavier armaments points to a menacing new stage in the Mexican government's 2-year-old war against drug organizations, which are evolving into a more militarized force prepared to take on Mexican army troops, deployed by the thousands, as well as to attack each other.
These groups appear to be taking advantage of a robust global black market and porous borders, especially between Mexico and Guatemala. Some of the weapons are left over from the wars that the United States helped fight in Central America, U.S. officials said.http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-arms-race15-2009mar15,0,229992.storyThere is no doubt that we need to enforce existing laws against any individuals or dealers who smuggle weapons into Mexico, but disarming our people will only make life easier for these ruthless thugs.
At the same time there is no reason to give up our Second Amendment rights to own semi-auto firearms merely because other countries such as Mexico are a cesspool of corruption and violence.
For many years the borders between Mexico and the United States have been very porous which facilitated the movement of illegal drugs into our country for enormous profit. The blame can be laid at the foot of the Bush administration which concentrated on stopping threats from Iraq rather than recognize the very real problem from Mexico. Now it looks like the chickens are coming home to roost.
Our "drug war" is a total failure and I suspect many officials, individuals and politicians in our country have profited by fighting this war and ignoring the border.
We would be far better off by considering legalizing some drugs and reducing the profit motive. The failure to do this might lead to the collapse of the government of Mexico and a consequent human disaster that will send an enormous number of refugees into our nation.
Mexico has very strict gun laws and the population has suffered at the hands of criminal drug gangs. Since I doubt we will ever change our drug laws, disarming our citizens may well lead to the cartels extending their influence and terrorism into our country.
We have some serious choices to make in the near future. Continuing to fight the "drug war" without looking realistically at the results and playing political games with "assault weapons" will only exasperate the problem.
If I were able to make the choices, I would concentrate the efforts of the U.S. government on organized drug gangs in our country. I would treat them as terrorists (which they are). I would put enough law enforcement or military on the border to stop or greatly reduce smuggling. I would legalize some drugs. Rather than impose draconian gun laws on honest citizens, I would focus my efforts on criminals who misuse guns. I would also change our immigration policies to allow more legal immigrants to enter our country.
I definitely would not play political games with the problems our country faces. The problems are far too serious for the typical political approach this country has adopted over the last few decades.
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