Civil War in Mexico Spreading to U.S.
Friday, November 14, 2008 - FreeMarketNews.com Larry Pratt is the Executive Director for Gun Owners of America,
a national gun lobby with over 300,000 members. GOA is located
at 8001 Forbes Place, Springfield, VA 22151 and at
http://www.gunowners.org on the web.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mexican officials frequently lecture the U.S. about our supposedly
loose gun laws that are blamed for spreading anarchy south of our
borders. Mexican President Filipe Calderon has admitted that his
country is experiencing a "gradual and growing disintegration of
public and governmental institutions."
Never having met an excuse for gun control that they did not like,
officials in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
(BATFE) have set up computer terminals in American consulate offices
throughout Mexico. Somehow, violating the privacy of American gun
owners is supposed to help control crime in a corrupt and chaotic
Mexico. Yeah, right.
But neither the Mexican lecturing nor the BATFE's sharing of data on
American gun owners will make one whit of difference. The type of gun
control that Mexico is clamoring for sounds quite familiar to American
gun owners. We have heard politicians in U.S. jurisdictions with
draconian gun control (Washington, DC, for example) try to shift the
blame for their high violent crime rates to guns brought in from
elsewhere.
District of Columbia officials like to blame Virginia's "loose" gun
laws for the District's crime woes. Unmentioned is the much lower
(about 100 times lower) crime rate in neighboring Fairfax County with
its population of nearly twice that of our nation’s crime capital.
Mexico, it turns out, has very similar gun laws to those in the
District of Columbia (after the Supreme Court overturned their
handgun ban). And the results are just as disastrous.
The same kind of scheme is employed in both Washington, D.C. and in
Mexico. The post-ban D.C. law allows handgun ownership as well as
non-semi-automatic rifles and shotguns. Until recently, the handgun
ownership that was allowed was a joke -- no semi-automatics. Just
like Mexico.
A licensing scheme is an additional major obstacle for gun ownership
in D.C. In Mexico, ownership is subject to the police power (the same
clinker that is in the Illinois constitution). On top of that, just
try to get a license to legally own a gun. New York City may have
given the Mexicans lessons on this. Licensing can easily produce the
same result as an outright ban.
Since the Mexican government has imposed their version of gun control
even longer than has Washington, it is not surprising that crime is
worse in Mexico. Much worse.
Raging gun battles between rival drug gangs surge through the streets
of Mexican cities and towns -- the thugs having no regard for innocent
bystanders. The bystanders are helpless because by law, they have no
guns (even at home). Alternately, cops and journalists are picked off
when they don't do what they are told by the traffickers. Becoming a
police chief who is not on the take is a very gutsy thing to do.
The drug cartels are in effect conducting a civil war aimed at
controlling the government for the enhancement of their "business."
Mexican border towns from Nuevo Laredo to Tijuana are among the
locales that have been scenes in this civil war. But it does not stop
in Mexico. There have been U.S. border incursions by armed, organized
cartel units sometimes disguised as Mexican soldiers.
In June of this year, a Phoenix home was the scene of what is called
in U.S. police jargon, a "dynamic entry." This is another way of
saying "an armed attack." Black SUV's, men in black BDU's (battle
dress uniforms), automatic rifles -- an increasingly familiar scene
in the U.S. -- were employed in the attack. It seemed a little
different, though, when one group of attackers began laying down
covering fire while a second team invaded the home, killing a man
inside (somewhat reminiscent of the BATFE attack on the Davidian’s
building in Waco).
What was truly unique about the Phoenix no-knock entry was that the
invaders were not U.S. cops. They were Mexican hit men taking care of
business for a drug cartel -- well inside the U.S. border.
In spite of the audacious faux-police attack in Phoenix, the
president of one of Mexico's most influential newspaper chains (Grupo
Reforma) has moved to Texas over concerns for his safety in Mexico.
Alejandro Junco and his family have moved to Austin, Texas. At least
in Texas, this refugee has the legal right to protect himself.
Interesting that a crime refugee fled the Mexican gun control Mecca
for the "Wild West" of the U.S.
We cannot do much about Mexico's laws, although it is tempting to
return the favor of their elites who lecture us about our gun laws.
But we can do something about U.S. politicians who are openly
anti-self defense, or who do nothing to remove our dangerous gun
control laws that only benefit criminals (the same as they do in
Mexico). We can expose them all.
a national gun lobby with over 300,000 members. GOA is located
at 8001 Forbes Place, Springfield, VA 22151 and at
http://www.gunowners.org on the web.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mexican officials frequently lecture the U.S. about our supposedly
loose gun laws that are blamed for spreading anarchy south of our
borders. Mexican President Filipe Calderon has admitted that his
country is experiencing a "gradual and growing disintegration of
public and governmental institutions."
Never having met an excuse for gun control that they did not like,
officials in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
(BATFE) have set up computer terminals in American consulate offices
throughout Mexico. Somehow, violating the privacy of American gun
owners is supposed to help control crime in a corrupt and chaotic
Mexico. Yeah, right.
But neither the Mexican lecturing nor the BATFE's sharing of data on
American gun owners will make one whit of difference. The type of gun
control that Mexico is clamoring for sounds quite familiar to American
gun owners. We have heard politicians in U.S. jurisdictions with
draconian gun control (Washington, DC, for example) try to shift the
blame for their high violent crime rates to guns brought in from
elsewhere.
District of Columbia officials like to blame Virginia's "loose" gun
laws for the District's crime woes. Unmentioned is the much lower
(about 100 times lower) crime rate in neighboring Fairfax County with
its population of nearly twice that of our nation’s crime capital.
Mexico, it turns out, has very similar gun laws to those in the
District of Columbia (after the Supreme Court overturned their
handgun ban). And the results are just as disastrous.
The same kind of scheme is employed in both Washington, D.C. and in
Mexico. The post-ban D.C. law allows handgun ownership as well as
non-semi-automatic rifles and shotguns. Until recently, the handgun
ownership that was allowed was a joke -- no semi-automatics. Just
like Mexico.
A licensing scheme is an additional major obstacle for gun ownership
in D.C. In Mexico, ownership is subject to the police power (the same
clinker that is in the Illinois constitution). On top of that, just
try to get a license to legally own a gun. New York City may have
given the Mexicans lessons on this. Licensing can easily produce the
same result as an outright ban.
Since the Mexican government has imposed their version of gun control
even longer than has Washington, it is not surprising that crime is
worse in Mexico. Much worse.
Raging gun battles between rival drug gangs surge through the streets
of Mexican cities and towns -- the thugs having no regard for innocent
bystanders. The bystanders are helpless because by law, they have no
guns (even at home). Alternately, cops and journalists are picked off
when they don't do what they are told by the traffickers. Becoming a
police chief who is not on the take is a very gutsy thing to do.
The drug cartels are in effect conducting a civil war aimed at
controlling the government for the enhancement of their "business."
Mexican border towns from Nuevo Laredo to Tijuana are among the
locales that have been scenes in this civil war. But it does not stop
in Mexico. There have been U.S. border incursions by armed, organized
cartel units sometimes disguised as Mexican soldiers.
In June of this year, a Phoenix home was the scene of what is called
in U.S. police jargon, a "dynamic entry." This is another way of
saying "an armed attack." Black SUV's, men in black BDU's (battle
dress uniforms), automatic rifles -- an increasingly familiar scene
in the U.S. -- were employed in the attack. It seemed a little
different, though, when one group of attackers began laying down
covering fire while a second team invaded the home, killing a man
inside (somewhat reminiscent of the BATFE attack on the Davidian’s
building in Waco).
What was truly unique about the Phoenix no-knock entry was that the
invaders were not U.S. cops. They were Mexican hit men taking care of
business for a drug cartel -- well inside the U.S. border.
In spite of the audacious faux-police attack in Phoenix, the
president of one of Mexico's most influential newspaper chains (Grupo
Reforma) has moved to Texas over concerns for his safety in Mexico.
Alejandro Junco and his family have moved to Austin, Texas. At least
in Texas, this refugee has the legal right to protect himself.
Interesting that a crime refugee fled the Mexican gun control Mecca
for the "Wild West" of the U.S.
We cannot do much about Mexico's laws, although it is tempting to
return the favor of their elites who lecture us about our gun laws.
But we can do something about U.S. politicians who are openly
anti-self defense, or who do nothing to remove our dangerous gun
control laws that only benefit criminals (the same as they do in
Mexico). We can expose them all.
No comments:
Post a Comment