This isn’t an ATF Death Watch post because the ATF had nothing to do with the official sales of fully automatic firearms, grenades, grenade launchers, millions of rounds of ammo and sundry weaponry to the Mexican military, whereupon it “seeped” to Mexican cartels. Not that we know of. As for the “inadvertent” transfer of thousands upon thousands of U.S. government-sanctioned military weapons to Mexican narco-terrorists, that we knew about. We’ve been flagging it  since the Fast and Furious scandal broke bad. But now, finally, the mainstream media has peered under the full-auto AR-15 with grenade launcher-shaped rock. CBS may not be outraged, but they do appear slightly peeved . . .

The Mexican military recently reported nearly 9,000 police weapons “missing.” [ED: During what time period?]

Yet the U.S. has approved the sale of more guns to Mexico in recent years than ever before through a program called “direct commercial sales.” It’s a program that some say is worse than the highly-criticized “Fast and Furious” gunrunning scandal, where U.S. agents allowed thousands of weapons to pass from the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels.

CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson discovered that the official tracking all those guns sold through “direct commercial sales” leaves something to be desired.

I know CBS has a deeply patrician (i.e. condescending) culture, but that’s the worst/best example of English understatement I’ve encountered since a Purdey salesman told me that their guns were “slightly dear.” To wit:

[The State Department approved] 2,476 guns to be sold to Mexico in 2006. In 2009, that number was up nearly 10 times, to 18,709. The State Department has since stopped disclosing numbers of guns it approves, and wouldn’t give CBS News figures for 2010 or 2011.

With Mexico in a virtual state of war with its cartels, nobody’s tracking how many U.S. guns are ending up with the enemy . . .

The State Department audits only a tiny sample – less than 1 percent of sales – but the results are disturbing: In 2009, more than a quarter (26 percent) of the guns sold to the region that includes Mexico were “diverted” into the wrong hands, or had other “unfavorable” results.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Larry Keane, who speaks for gun manufacturers, said he understands the potential for abuse.

“There have been 150,000 or more Mexican soldiers defect to go work for the cartels, and I think it’s safe to assume that when they defect they take their firearms with them,” Keane told CBS News.

Note: Fast and Furious enabled just 2000 weapons in a ten-month time frame. You want a proper gun running scandal? Here it is.

And so the question becomes, so what? Will Senator Grassley and Representative Issa restrict themselves to Fast and Furious-related high crimes and misdemeanors or will they take on the whole enchilada?

In two days’ time, when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder faces Rep. Issa’s congressional committee for a rematch, we shall see. Or not. Meanwhile, note to CBS: now that you’ve picked up the ball, don’t drop it.

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16 COMMENTS

  1. Is this really a shock to anyone?
    The Obama administration sells tens of thousands of guns to the Mexican Military to help them fight the Narco-Terrorists yet those same weapons are ending up in the hands of those very narco’s, fueling the violence on the border.
    Guess that 90% of illegal guns in Mexico come from the US statement might be true after all, except the inconvenient truth that it was the US Government, not straw purchasers of civilian weapons who are funneling the arms southward.
    That and the fact that the US does not manufacturer fully automatic AK , FAL or G3 style weapons as commonly seen on TV in the hands of Narco Terrorists….

      • Before you post a comment on gun manufacturers, do some research… The G3 is HK which is full auto, the HK-91 is a semi auto version…HK is GERMAN….. but… there are clones and remakes… PTR 91 is a remake.. made by PTR. AK has many makers worldwide……….

    • You’ve got a point there. I notice a lot of cartel members holding a fully automatic G3 looking rifle. The Mexican military has droves of G3 rifles and doesn’t really use them that much any more; so they sit in storage.
      I think it’s safe to assume that a lot of the fully automatic G3s that are arming the cartel came straight from the military.

  2. So let me get this straight. The ATF, DEA and CIA arms the cartels with thousands of semi- and fully-automatic weapons. The DEA launders cartel money in an amount that the New York Times — the Democrat-ass-kissing Times — reports may be as much as $50 billion. The DEA and the AG cuts deals with cartel leaders for intel and allows their informants to walk away from crime scenes. Is that basically it?

    • You know the DEA has better things to do like bust state legal medical pot dispensaries. The ATF is busy trying to figure out who has been throwing molotovs in Baltimore. And the CIA is trying to find a new drug to dose unsuspecting people with in search of a truth serum.

    • Meanwhile the commies are returning to power in Russia, Sharia is sweeping the Middle East, Iran is developing nukes, progressive economic strategies are making things worse in America, the EU is imploding, emergency room wait times in America now average four and one half hours, and I haven’t yet found a restaurant in Portland that can cook a perfect burger.

      • ER wait times arent 4.5 hours around Chicago, unless maybe your going to the county hospital. I had to go to the ER 3 times in June/July of this year at different times during the day, and they were able to get to me in under 10 minutes. It wanst anything particularly critical either.

  3. Take the wind out of everyone’s sails, end the war on drugs.
    Of course this would help no one except the average American and Mexican. It would eliminate at least one federal agency, it would greatly reduce the size of our penetentiary system and the number of guys with guns we need on the border. Firearms manufacturers would find that sales have dropped steeply, the military and various law enforcement agencies would find their budgets slashed. Politicians would have one less thing to scream about and be “tough on”. We would no longer have a chickenshit excuse for imprisioning millions of minorities.
    We could stop treating drug addiction as a criminal act and start treating it as a serious medical problem.
    Besides all of the money we would save no longer enforcing this stupid, long running policy (thanks Nixon) imagine the tax revenue from the legal sale of drugs.
    Who’s going to tell me that legalizing drugs is worse than tens of thousands of people murdered and a neighboring country being corrupted at every level, not to mention parts of our own country?

    • I completely agree with you but the powers that be will never let that happen. There is simply too much economic activity associated with drugs. How many people are employed to manage the drug users? How much activity would be lost to other sectors which support those who manage drug users?

  4. Robert,
    I’ve been trying to confirm the actual hearing date/time and have not been able to, there’s nothing on the H.O.C. website, and when I called them today they did not know, yet I’ve seen two different outlets report that it’s Thursday AM.

    Do you have an actual schedule for this hearing?

    Thanks

    Mike

  5. I have been saying this for years. Through the years I have observed photos of the Drug Lords guns which were confiscated and they sure never looked like much from my local Gun Shop Dealer. Why have a stupid F & F gun when you can have the real deal!

  6. I also say that this is the reason that even if the US Government banned all private held guns; criminals would still have access to fire arms and weapons.

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