Erich Pratt -- Are US Gun Owners Fueling Mexico's Drug War?

ARE US GUN OWNERS FUELING MEXICO'S DRUG WAR?

By Erich Pratt
April 5, 2009

NewsWithViews.com

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently stated that resurrecting the Clinton semi-auto ban would help stop U.S. guns from getting to the Mexican drug cartels. Before imposing any new legislation, however, there are at least ten questions the Obama administration should be forced to answer.

10. Are Mexican drug dealers really standing in line at American gun stores, waiting to transport thousands of guns back into Mexico?

9. This country imposes a Brady Law background check for anyone who purchases a gun from a gun dealer -- a law that is intended to keep guns from getting into the wrong hands. Does this mean the Brady Law is ineffective and needs to be repealed?

8. Press reports indicate the Mexican drug cartels are compiling automatic weapons, grenades, and grenade launchers. Since those weapons aren't available to the average U.S. citizen, doesn't this, once again, support the old adage that "when guns are banned, only criminals will have guns"?

7. What about drugs … aren't they illegal? Or, are we to believe the Mexican cartels are getting their drugs from American citizens, as well?

6. Even in this country, we have seen government-issued weapons being lost, stolen or illegally sold to the criminal market. So given the fact that our government has shipped millions of guns to arm crooked military and police departments in Central America over the past 50 years, is it really too difficult to believe that many of those guns have trickled into the hands of the Mexican drug runners?

5. Americans are supposed to believe that 90% of the cartels' guns come from the U.S. -- a factoid that is supposed to justify more gun control. But given the fact that 75-90% of all illegal immigration comes across our southern border, why does this scandal not justify immediate action to seal our border?

4. Many politicians assume the answer to every crime problem is to punish law-abiding gun owners. But isn't that as silly as thinking that a ban on money is an appropriate response to the illegal profits being made by the drug "industry"?

3. Mexico has always treated the emigration of its citizens into the U.S. as a situation that is our problem. Well, if guns really are flowing across our southern border into Mexico, shouldn't this gun traffic be their problem?

2. The Obama administration seems to be following Rahm Emmanuel's dictum that, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." Given this prevalent theme, doesn't the whole US-guns-are-going-to-Mexico refrain seem to be a self-serving effort on Eric Holder's part to justify his call for resurrecting the Clinton gun ban?

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1. Already more than 60 Democrat congressmen have issued a letter to Eric Holder to object to his calls for more gun control. This is noteworthy, since the last time an administration tried to ram a semi-auto ban down the throats of the American people -- in 1994 -- millions of pro-gun Democrats crossed party lines to usher in a Republican majority in Congress and in state legislatures across the country. So the last question gun owners should ask is: "Mr.Holder, do you feel lucky?"

Erich Pratt is the Director of Communications for Gun Owners of America, a national gun lobby with over 300,000 members. GOA is located at 8001 Forbes Place, Springfield, VA 22151.

Larry Pratt has been Executive Director of Gun Owners of America for 27 years. GOA is a national membership organization of 300,000 Americans dedicated to promoting their second amendment freedom to keep and bear arms.

He published a book, Armed People Victorious, in 1990 and was editor of a book, Safeguarding Liberty: The Constitution & Militias, 1995. His latest book, On the Firing Line: Essays in the Defense of Liberty was published in 2001.