Today's NY Times - Reader Comments on Mexico and Guns

[RI_John]

On the front page of the NY Times online edition, there is no mention of the nationwide Tea Parties. However, there is a feature on how the U.S. is responsible for the gun violence by Mexican drug gangs. They have a nice 9 photo spread with U.S. gun shops followed by pictures of coffins in Mexico. Well done. Here are two typical reader comments following the article. Please read and then note the number of recommendations each got. I am not suprised, but on some level, I am astounded by the sheer ignorance-

(note- where can I get an "armor piercing weapon" and also where can I get a "machine gun without a background check"? I will go there today!)

“They are going to get their guns either way,” he said. “The only thing that a ban is going to stop is good people being able to get a gun.”

"The cartels have the money to get guns wherever they want,” said Charles Fredien, the owner of Chuck’s Gun in Brownsville, Tex., on the border “They have grenades, don’t they? They don’t buy grenades here.”

Comments like this baffle me. What kind of person, "good" or otherwise, NEEDS to own an assault rifle or a gun that can pierce body armor? Just because bad people can get bad things other places, does that mean we should give them to them? I'm not saying get rid of all guns- "long", hunting style rifles are good for target shooting and hunting and are considerably more safe (in that they do not fire multiple rounds quickly and are hard to conceal).

I can see no conceivable reason however for the sale of assault, automatic, or armor-piercing weapons in our country. The US is not a war-torn nation. Armed bands of men with guns do not ride around raping and pillaging our villages. The reason for this is not because we allow people to buy assault weapons, but because of the wealth of our society and strength of our social institutions. When bands of rogues roam the vast planes and high mountains of our country, terrorizing small towns with terrible violence and the government is powerless to step in and help, then I will say sell assault weapons to regular people to protect themselves. Short of that (which would probably require a total collapse of our society), I see no good reason to ban everything except hunting/target rifles, and possibly non-armor piercing, non-automatic, hand guns (though I don't like them, it would probably be necessary to pass any sort of comprehensive ban on the really bad stuff).

— Shanghai Expat, Shanghai, China
Recommend Recommended by 43 Readers
5.
April 15, 2009 7:17 am

Link
And right wingers yell at Clinton for stating that the US policies have SOME effect on the problems between Mexico and the US.

How about we stop selling automatic rifles in the US? How about longer waiting and more security checks?

I don't understand how pro-gun activists can justify the need for automatic rifles. They are for killing, not hunting. Plain and simple.

Have all the hunting rifles you want. Have all the collectors rifles you want. Have all the guns that can be used to protect your home (I know hand-guns are controversial, as they are not for hunting, only killing, but they are also for protection)

But machine guns? A lack of background checks? As pro-gun advocates you should be DEMANDING these things! Take back control of your issue! You shouldn't blindly oppose ALL forms of gun control! If there was NO gun control, we'd have an even bigger problem with street crime and gangs.

In the 20 years that gun control has been prioritized, violent crimes and gang crimes related to guns have gone down, proportionally.

And how about these guns that simply go from the US to Mexico, then are used to kill US and Mexican police? How is that good? GUN CONTROL IS GOOD. Nobody is trying to take away all your guns, no matter what the far right tells you.

— will m, Iowa
Recommend Recommended by 33 Readers

 

[drumenigma]

"I know hand-guns are controversial, as they are not for hunting, only killing, but they are also for protection"

What an ignorant statement. Plenty of people hunt with handguns. You have to love how these people pull these facts out of their butts.

 

[doobie]

Street cars should not be allowed to have engines with more than 150 horse power. Much more than than is dangerous and users fuel too heavily.

 

[jobowker]

Bullet proof vests will generally stop a 9mm handgun round. They will not stop a .308. Therefore, if you have a 308, then you have armor piercing rounds, right?
Exactly where do I get these automatic machine guns, and with no background check?

 

[Pilgrim]

also from MSNBC:

By James C. McKinley Jr.
updated 9:51 p.m. ET, Tues., April 14, 2009

HOUSTON - In July 2006, John Phillip Hernandez, a 24-year-old unemployed machinist who lived with his parents, walked into a giant sporting goods store here and plunked $2,600 in cash on a glass display counter. A few minutes later, Mr. Hernandez walked out with three military-style rifles.

One of those rifles was recovered seven months later in Acapulco, Mexico, where it had been used by drug cartel gunmen to attack the offices of the Guerrero State attorney general, court documents say. Four police officers and three secretaries were killed.

Although Mr. Hernandez was arrested last year as part of a gun-smuggling ring, most of the 22 others in the ring are still at large. Before their operation was discovered, the smugglers had managed to transport what court documents described as at least 339 high-powered weapons to Mexico over a year and a half, federal agents said.
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“There is no telling how long that group was operating before we caught on to them,” said J. Dewey Webb, the agent in charge of the Houston division of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Noting there are about 1,500 licensed gun dealers in the Houston area, he added: “You can come to Houston and go to a different gun store every day for several months and never alert any one.”

Evading detection
The case highlights a major obstacle facing the United States as it tries to meet a demand from Mexico to curb the flow of arms from the states to drug cartels. The federal system for tracking gun sales, crafted over the years to avoid infringements on Second Amendment rights, makes it difficult to quickly spot suspicious trends and to identify people buying for smugglers, law enforcement officials say.

As a result, in some states along the Southwest border where firearms are lightly regulated, gun smugglers can evade detection for months or years. In Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, dealers can sell an unlimited number of rifles to anyone with a driver’s license and a clean criminal record without reporting the sales to the government. At gun shows in these states, there is even less regulation. Private sellers, unlike licensed dealers, are not obligated to record the buyer’s name, much less report the sale to the A.T.F.

more here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30217992

In Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, dealers can sell an unlimited number of rifles to anyone with a driver’s license and a clean criminal record without reporting the sales to the government. At gun shows in these states, there is even less regulation.

Texas, NM and Az don't require NICS checks?

 

[Zappa]

The case highlights a major obstacle facing the United States as it tries to meet a demand from Mexico to curb the flow of arms from the states to drug cartels.

Mexico Demands ?
Who the F*** are they to Demand us to do squat?
I have an idea, how about we demand that Mexico do something to curb the flow of illegal aliens into the US?
Let's see how well that works out.

 

[hminsky]

The US is not a war-torn nation. Armed bands of men with guns do not ride around raping and pillaging our villages.

The LA riots were just a figment of people's imagination then.