Feds bust gun running ring in Arizona
US prosecutors are indicting twenty people on gun smuggling charges, including two “straw purchasers”.
Authorities said the ring is believed to have supplied the Sinaloa cartel with guns, and that some of the weapons bought by the group were used in shootings in Mexico. In all, 560 guns were recovered, a third in Mexico and the rest mostly in Arizona.
Many guns recovered in Mexico come from America’s four southern border states. Drug smugglers seek out guns in America because gun laws in Mexico are more restrictive than in the United States.
Apparently, the gun dealers were within the law since they haven’t been indicted.
While I’m glad that the Feds can stop gun smugglers across the border, I’d appreciate it if they’d put the same kind of effort into stopping people from crossing the same border.
Category: Guns
It’s about which way the flow is going, I guess. In to Mexico=bad, in to the US=good.
The thing that surprises me is the amount of weapons 1 person was able to purchase in a years time. NICS should have been all over that from the get go, since “assault weapons” have to be called in the same as handguns. If I were to go in and purchase 10 “assault weapons”, I would be immediately flagged. In fact, I can’t purchase that many in one year in my state, unless it was an estate sale and I was a collector, but then at estate sales, gun collectors rarely have that many “assault weapons” to begin with, so it’s a rather mute point. If they really want to stop the flow, then I think they need to be a little more vigilant in watching their records of purchses (BATFE that is), because it’s not rocket scinece and it’s not that difficult.
The 800 pound gorilla in the room is that all of this is a frikkin’ smoke-and-mirrors show by the BATF.
The fast is that the great majority (95%) of those US weapons being seen in Mexico are government purchases by Mexico’s military and police, both of which are rife with corruption. Those weapons, along with similar government-purchased weapons from of Central and South American nations, are being sold by corrupt government, military and police officials to the cartels. In fact, the Government’s own records show that as much as 75% of the “protection” that the cartels use is actual Mexican military and police, either moonlighting or deserters.
All this BATF nonsense if just Kabuki theater for the media’s consumption, and to further the desire of the gun-grabbers to get their agenda(s) enacted.
Does anyone here actual think it’s a coincidence that this big smuggling ring was busted and made the press just a couple weeks before POTUS plans a major speech about gun control?