Conservatives have been in a tizzy this week with the audacity of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who both Wednesday and again during a joint session to Congress on Thursday listed his objections to Arizona's controversial new anti-illegal immigration measure (which still hasn't actually gone into effect yet).
But what apparently isn't that controversial is the fact of how many guns that are part of the drug killing spree in Mexico are purchased right above the U.S. side of the border (according to Newsweek, there are some 12,000 gun stores on our side of the border). And so during speech to Congress yesterday he called for a reinstatement of the Assault Weapons ban that expired in 2004.
"I fully understand the political sensitivity of this issue. But I ask Congress to help us with this and to understand how important it is you enforce current laws to stem the supply to criminals and consider reinstating the assault-weapon ban.”
“Today, these weapons are aimed by criminals not only at rival gangs but also at Mexican civilians and authorities. With all due respect, you do not do enough to regulate [weapons] sales, and nothing guarantees that these criminals will not decide to challenge American authority and civilians” in the future, he said.
Calderon also said that of the 75,000 guns and assault weapons seized in Mexico in the past three years, “more than 80 percent of those we have been able to trace came from the United States.”'
A spokesman for perhaps the most powerful special interest group in the country, the National Rifle Association, said Calderon was all mixed up.
“The answer to Mexico’s drug and violence problem does not lie in dismantling the Second Amendment; it lies in making sure that the Mexican government takes care of problems on their side of the border,” NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said. “With all due respect to the president, he’s either intentionally using false data, or he’s unknowingly using bad numbers.”
Mr. Arulanandam pointed to congressional testimony given in March 2009 by an official with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who said there is no factual basis for the claim that as many as 90 percent of the weapons come from the U.S.
Senate Republicans, such as Texas' John Cornyn, weren't too pleased to hear some lecturing from a foreign leader as well.
"I have a lot of respect for President Calderón and his commitment to fight the cartels, but I don't think Americans ought to give up any of their freedoms in order to address another country's problems," he said, adding, "I'm a little uncomfortable with his commenting on American internal affairs and American domestic laws."
This article appears in May 20-26, 2010.