Wikileaks Cable, most cartell guns come from Central America

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NRA gives permission to reproduce articles as long as it's not for a commercial purpose so...

The most fearsome weapons wielded by Mexico's drug cartels enter the country from Central America, not the United States, according to U.S. diplomatic cables disseminated by WikiLeaks and published here Tuesday by La Jornada newspaper. Items such as grenades and rocket-launchers are stolen from Central American armies and smuggled into Mexico via neighboring Guatemala, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City reported to Washington.
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Very interesting information. No surprise to most of us I'm sure.
 
Also not surprising is that this information is from US diplomatic cables, despite Obama and his administration claiming something entirely different. As we all KNEW, the Mexico thing was just a ruse to get law abiding Americans to disarm.
 
Apparently this administration's left hand doesn't know what the other one is doing. Are we to believe the State Department withheld this information from the White House? :rolleyes:
 
Very interesting if true. Unfortunately, the NRA summary just parrots the Fox summary which just parrots the La Jornada article which doesn't seem to be available at the moment. None of them actually cites the cable in question, which is the whole point of having access to leaked cables, yes?

Borderland Beat cites a cable (1), which doesn't actually seem to say what anyone is reporting, except that to note that the southern Mexican border is almost completely porous, from which one can deduce that yes, people can probably bring guns cross it. For instance, in paragraph 7, we read that people regularly cross this southern border illegally and in clear view of a legal border crossing. They do claim precise figures, but I can't find the actual cable using cablesearch.org. If anyone can find this, please post a link.


(1): http://213.251.145.96/cable/2010/01/10MEXICO77.html
Confidential, do not view if prohibited
 
Apparently this administration's left hand doesn't know what the other one is doing. Are we to believe the State Department withheld this information from the White House?
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Don't forget that Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State was one of the primary mouthpieces parroting the "90% of mexican guns come from the US" meme, long after it was disproven.

This wasn't a matter of not knowing, or as Obama said too many "moving parts" to the government. This is an example of a coordinated effort by the Executive branch to LIE to the American people to further an anti-2A agenda.
 
This wasn't a matter of not knowing, or as Obama said too many "moving parts" to the government. This is an example of a coordinated effort by the Executive branch to LIE to the American people to further an anti-2A agenda.
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Very likely. That why I ended my post with... :rolleyes:
 
yup, as I recall, only some 8 or 10% of the guns are easily traced, of those 90% were from America. I loved all the libs acting like we can buy grenades, and rocket launchers in mom n pops gun shop
 
The Fox News article doesn't say "most" cartel guns come from Central America, mainly heavier weapons like RPGs. Let's not make the same mistake that the other side makes when looking at the available information.
 
Are you saying that the grenades, rockets and belt fed machineguns that we buy at the gunshows, local gun stores and from private sales aren't really going south to Mexico?
 
As with any story with two sides, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle.

It's obvious to any of us that are familiar with US gun laws that the grenades, rocket launchers, etc. are obviously coming from Central American and who knows where else. It's foolish for anyone to think grenades com from anywhere in the USA.

However, it's also foolish to try and pretend that a lot of guns turning up in Mexico don't come from the USA as well. With three mostly rural, gun-friendly states right next door you would have to be pretty naive to think Mexican gangsters never sent anyone up north to pick up some guns.
 
However, it's also foolish to try and pretend that a lot of guns turning up in Mexico don't come from the USA as well. With three mostly rural, gun-friendly states right next door you would have to be pretty naive to think Mexican gangsters never sent anyone up north to pick up some guns.
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We know they did. The gunshops called the ATF, were instructed to proceed with the sales against their better judgement, and ATF let the guns walk into Mexico and disappear. Google Project Gunrunner

Oh and that 90% statistic (which was really 17%) came from 2007-2008 trace data of about 6000 guns.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/02/myth-percent-small-fraction-guns-mexico-come/

We now know that at least 1700-2500 guns were intentionally allowed into Mexico by the ATF during a similar time period. And that is a conservative estimate which comes from only the guns that individual field agents were personally aware of.

Do the math.
 
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We know they did. The gunshops called the ATF, were instructed to proceed with the sales against their better judgement, and ATF let the guns walk into Mexico and disappear. Google Project Gunrunner
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Yes, I know. But, prior to that bombshell, groups like the NRA and other various conservative outlets were claiming that the guns in Mexico "simply don't come from the US" despite the appearance of weapons like MAK-90s with thumbholes and Barrett .50s that clearly came from the USA. Now they got lucky because they have a new distraction thanks to the gunrunner scandal, but it's not a case of them having ever been right, just lucky.
 
My previous reply was a bit harsh; La Jornada is much better about citing its sources. Unfortunately, the cable they cite for these figures (09MEXICO880) doesn't seem to be available anywhere.
 
I haven't seen anyone here claim that no guns come from the US to Mexico. Haven't seen anyone from the NRA make that claim either. Fox News didn't make that claim... they were the ones that broke the myth and more accurately pegged the number at 17%.

So who then? Perhaps you have links? Or maybe the Straw Man?

However, many people have claimed that the flow of guns south is a minor problem being blown out of proportion by an administration seeking political gain. And now the fact that that same administration has been found to be complicit in running guns south, it gains overtones of the Reichstag fire.

I'd be curious to see if the net flow of guns across the border is even biased in favor of the US. Drug smugglers bring weapons with them and I'm sure US gangs with ties to the Mexican cartels would love to have access to the heavy weaponry that has been taken from the Mexican military inventory, or moved up from Central America.
 
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Anyone have a link to the actual cable? I can't find it, but then again, I'm recovering from surgery and the old brain pan isn't working at 100%.
 
The set traced to the U.S were preselected from a large set of guns in Mexico.

Imagine someone selecting gumballs that might be 'red' from a huge bag. Any gumball that's close to being red is segregated for testing. Of those, 90% were in fact red.

Then the news is "Ninety percent of all gumballs are red!" :cuss:
 
I haven't seen anyone here claim that no guns come from the US to Mexico.
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And no one's arguing the opposite. This thread is titled "Wikileaks Cable, most cartell [sic] guns come from Central America." That is not what the article says.
 
With three mostly rural, gun-friendly states right next door
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Would you call California "mostly rural"? 'Cause we just passed them in electoral votes. Yes, there are rural areas, but I don't think this qualifies as "mostly rural"

Texas-State-Population-Density-Map.jpg

Keep in mind that the couple of white counties are also going to be mighty short on gun stores...
 
Would you call California "mostly rural"? 'Cause we just passed them in electoral votes. Yes, there are rural areas, but I don't think this qualifies as "mostly rural"
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Coming from New Jersey, Texas is most certainly rural by our standards. And we would consider New Mexico and Arizona pretty much a barren wasteland.

So yeah, you're rural to us. For example Bergen-Essex-Hudson has more people than all of New Mexico.

New-Jersey-State-Population-Density-Map.jpg
 
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Thanks essayons, can't believe I even managed to miss it in the thread, I must be really out of it today.
 
Bergen-Essex-Hudson has more people than all of New Mexico.

And those of us in New Mexico really, really hope it stays that way!! :neener:
 
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