Reply #7: The military arms are coming from Central America, not the US

[slackmaster]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-arms-race15-2009mar15,0,7497626,full.story

NOBODY is saying that people are buying grenades and machine guns at the local fucking sporting goods store.

You don't see it because you are not very familiar with the subject. I am, so let me help you out. From the article cited in the OP:

U.S. weapons

Government officials say 90 percent of the arms in the drug wars come from the United States, including grenades and rocket launchers. Southbound drug cash is estimated as high as $25 billion a year. With the death count last year in Mexico at 6,290, more than the United States has lost in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Mexican officials are pleading with U.S. counterparts to help stop the southbound smuggling and focus on reducing U.S. drug consumption.

Feinstein produced a letter from Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan urging "shared responsibility" for the drug problem. Sarukhan said that in 2007, there were 7,600 federally licensed arms dealers in U.S. border states and 50,000 nationwide, but the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms inspected just 5 percent of them. An assault weapons ban sponsored by Feinstein expired in 2004, but there is no appetite in Congress to renew it.

This is a dishonest attempt to make people believe that the expired AW ban had something to do with grenades and rocket launchers. It did not. Shipping something "down" means from north to south. THAT is the canard I am referring to.

The military arms may have originated in the USA, but they are NOT being smuggled from the USA into Mexico.