Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bobby Kennedy's Daughter on Guns to Mex.

Hey, fair and balanced, right?

Maybe I should say, ....Know your Enemy ( Enema?)

this is what we're dealing with, at any rate

note that we are being called "Extremists"

Note as well that the term "War on Terror" has vanished.

"War on extremism" has replaced it.

Do the math.

GTC

Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/03/26/kennedy.townsend.guns/index.html

Commentary: Stop flow of U.S. guns to Mexico drug war

Editor's note: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland and daughter of late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, is a former U.S. deputy assistant attorney general and serves on the board of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. She is a Democrat. Paul Helmke, the former mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is a Republican and president of the Brady Campaign.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend says the bloody Mexican drug war is being fueled by American guns.


(CNN) -- America's neighbor to the south is engaged in a bloody war with ruthless drug cartels.

It is a war that is threatening to bring down the government of Mexico, is spilling over into neighborhoods in the United States and is fast becoming a serious national security concern.

American gun sellers supply the cartels with 95 to 100 percent of their guns, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

While the Mexican drug war has the media and Washington abuzz, there has been little mention of our role in supplying the terrorists: We need to realize that the Mexican drug cartels are arming themselves here because our gun laws have loopholes so large that criminals and gun traffickers can easily drive gun-laden trucks through them. Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora correctly called American gun laws "absurd."

This crisis is not happening because our border is loose. It is happening because our gun laws allow guns to be sold by unlicensed sellers without background checks required by the Brady Bill, military-style assault weapons to be freely sold and corrupt gun dealers to thrive.

We need to prevent Mexican criminals and the traffickers who supply them from buying guns by changing our gun laws and strengthening U.S. law enforcement's ability to crack down on corrupt gun dealers.
'The War Next Door'
Anderson Cooper reports live from the Mexican border as brutal drug trade violence spills over into the United States.
Tonight, 10 ET on CNN
see full schedule �

Although it is urgent that we help stem the violence in Mexico, we must realize that the same legal loopholes and corrupt gun sellers that help arm Mexican criminals also arm American criminals. We should heed the call of Mexican officials to help stop the violence there, but we also should heed the call of the vast majority of Americans to stop the violence in their communities.

Proposals from Washington have ignored these central points, instead focusing on border issues, enforcement of current laws and a possible federal ban on assault weapons. Though helpful, those proposals do not address some other fundamental weaknesses of our gun laws.

If we want to help the Mexican people and our own, we must eliminate the loopholes and gaps in federal law that allow guns to be sold without Brady background checks by unlicensed sellers. The ATF has found that gun sales without background checks are a major source for supplying dangerous people with guns.

Under current federal law, only gun sales by a federally licensed gun dealer are subject to Brady background checks. "Private sales" by unlicensed sellers don't require a background check.

At gun shows -- sort of like flea markets for firearms -- so-called private sellers sell guns to anyone, no questions asked, except in states that have closed this loophole under state law.

Texas and Arizona continue to allow private sellers to sell without background checks, and gun shows in those states are one of the sources of guns recovered in Mexico.
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Mexican drug cartels are exploiting this loophole. We all agree that criminals should not be allowed to buy guns. We should also agree that all gun sellers should check to make sure they are not arming criminals.

There is more we should do. We must get rid of the riders, known collectively as the Tiahrt Amendment, attached annually to Justice Department appropriations legislation since 2004.

These riders weaken enforcement of our laws by prohibiting the ATF from releasing gun crime gun data to law enforcement and others, prohibiting the ATF from requiring gun dealer inventory audits and requiring the destruction of critical Brady background check records within only 24 hours.

We also should further strengthen the ATF by making it easier to revoke the licenses of reckless dealers, give it the power to suspend licenses and levy civil penalties, and eliminate the bizarre restriction that limits the ATF to only one spot inspection of a gun dealer per year.

In addition to strengthening the ATF's enforcement power, we need to attack gun trafficking at its source by limiting the high-volume gun sales that fuel trafficking from licensed dealers. Under federal law, there is no limit to how many handguns or assault weapons a purchaser can buy at a time, allowing gun traffickers to quickly amass guns suitable for an army.

Every year, 30,000 Americans are killed with guns, but all too often, Washington has ignored the pleas of the vast majority of Americans calling for sanity in our gun laws. Politicians frequently echo the gun lobby refrain to only "enforce the laws on the books," refusing to admit that there are very few laws on the books. But the Mexican drug war has upped the ante.

Now that our weak gun laws threaten the stability of an important ally, fueling one of our nation's most ominous global security threats, the question is whether we will strengthen our gun laws to protect Mexicans, and Americans, or whether we will cater to the extremist gun lobby.

What can you expect from an antigun extremist/zealot? Why would the Mexican drug cartels get their guns from US gun stores, where they can't get the full auto firearms, which they can get from many other sources that the US government has NO control over?
O well, can't expect LOGIC from the antigun nitwits.

Where do our gun laws allow guns to be sold by unlicensed sellers? And how do those guns make it south if our border isn't loose?

I don't doubt that her family's experience makes impossible for her to think rationally, but this is the dumbest thing I've read in a while.

Chris112, Apologies for putting up this noisome drivel.

Thought it best to look at the flip side of the CNN coin ( vs Lapierre's excellent commentary)

..........the fact that WE're being purveyed as extremists is what concerns me.

GTC

We got equal time on this one,

see: Our Freedoms are NOT Mexico's problems

Dumbest dittos.

GTC

Where are these undocumented aliens getting full auto firearms from in the USA? I would like to buy one myself. We might need to arm ourselves with full auto guns if our socalled leaders want to bury their heads in the sand to the real supplier of weapons to the drug cartels. They need to look at Mexico's south border for gun traffic not the north border. But,we know that these useless Democrap and Republicrap leaders won't go through all that trouble.They rather take the easy route and blame the gun traffic on the USA.It's a convenient way to bring about tougher gun laws in America. When will they ever learn,WE are the the bosses of them,they do what we tell them to do.Not the other way around. I say it's time to clean house and fire the whole bunch of them.

I would like to see a report from the ATF proving that Mexico is getting their illegal guns from the USA. Why doesn't the Border Patrol show an arrest record for people that were caught trafficing guns into Mexico. I doubt they can poduce this evidence because it's not happening. If our worthless government would stop kissing up to Mexico and close the border by stationing US Military along the border then there will be no chance of drugs getting smuggled into the US or guns going south. If they are serious about stopping this problem then make the southern US border a DMZ like they are doing with Korea.If our government wants to keep playing this silly game by ignoring the real problem then they are negligent in their duties to protect us from drug crime that overflows from Mexico. We nee to protect ourselves if we can't count on them.

BPML 100% right on !!

For years there has been a lot of talk about legalizing drugs because the laws are imposible to enforce and it's impossible to stop them - only law abiding people don't get drug's - for anyone that want's them they are readily available. What makes these people think that they could enforce stricter gun laws any better? All it would do is hurt the honest law abiding person and give the still armed criminal an even better advantage.

I would like one of these anti-gun extremists to leave their high class possibly resticted neiborhood and move to an area like mine and then tell me if they felt safer knowing they didn't have a gun in their house. Several years ago I read that one of Ted Kennedy body guards got in trouble for a gun violation in Washington DC - I am sure he feels that stricker gun laws will not keep him from having access to armed protection, it seems he might even feel that the the current laws shouldn't apply to his people.

Ditto....



Casey

This is the part that worries/annoys me:

"Every year, 30,000 Americans are killed with guns, but all too often, Washington has ignored the pleas of the vast majority of Americans calling for sanity in our gun laws. Politicians frequently echo the gun lobby refrain to only "enforce the laws on the books," refusing to admit that there are very few laws on the books."

One reason the Democrats lost elections in previous years was PRECISELY because they were anti-gun, and the NRA demonstrated that anti-gun politicians were for the most part losing elections. To claim that most Americans oppose guns/2nd Amendment has been demonstrated to be wrong!

But it is important to note that at least a significant proportion of Democrats have learned their lesson (at least for the time being), by opposing suggestions coming out of the current Whitehouse, and legislation proposed in Congress, that offers more restrictions on firearms.

Pointing out the contradiction of Democrats whose rhetoric supported 1st Amendment rights but wanted to violate 2nd Amendment rights has had an effect on the current Democrats.

The problem is, the Blue Team is populated by folks like the Kennedy Clan.......


Casey

I believe we should all recognize that the Brady bunch and their lickspittles have one and only one agenda. That is to see to it that only law enforcement and the military can legaly own a firearm in this country. All and any firearm no matter what lie they tell to the contrary.

That is it. Dear John, sent your saddle home. Despite the handwringing and crockodile tears they do not care two hoots in hell about Mexico or her people's problems with the drug cartels. Mexico is just a handy anchor to tie the agenda too so that one more step can be taken to advance their untimate goal.

Their running dogs in the MSM are happy to show and/or tell about ugly looking guns shooting lots of bullets and feature piles of dead bodies. That will convince the mouth breathers that SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE.

It doesn't matter that that it is virtually impossible to buy fragmentation grenades or RPGs or fully automatic weapons in this country even illegally. Just show them and intimate that they are available here and show those news clips and SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE.

Facts smacts it doesn't matter. All that matters is taking another step on the road to a dis armed populace. It doesn't matter to them that criminals break laws for a living. That is what they do. It doesn't matter that anyone with a tiny bit of thought process and a few hand tools can produce a working fire arm if you turn them loose in a decently equiped hardware store. It matters that most folks in this country are law abiding and will nuckle under to a law no matter how illogical or stupid it is. Just pass it. SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE.

Right now anyone can legally trade, sell, or otherwise transfer a firearm to another individual legally. That is what gets their panties in a wad. They have no control over it. And they are hell bent on using anything they can, Mexico being handy at the moment, to stop this so called louphole. One more step to advance their agenda and dead Mexicans are handy. Never forget they want them all under government control.

It sure isn't original with me but the saying gun control is about control not guns is the gospel truth.

That is the ultimate goal of the Brady bunch and any other group that holds government superior to the individual. Government control over every facit of personal freedom and any means to enforce personal freedom.

BCR

The best first name to go with the Kennedy surname is . . . . . The Late _____ Kennedy.

While the statistic that the Anti's always use for gun deaths is 30K annually, they never mention that greater than 50% of those are suicides. While it still hurts to have a family member die of suicide, it is hardly the wanton murder of strangers that the overall statistic conveys.

Since the availability of seatbelts, auto deaths have steadily held to about 40k annually, despite all of the extra safety devices and cost added to the automobile. It seems to me that we should be closing down the big three automakers instead of bailing them out as their product continues to kill at a much higher rate than firearms (and many innocent victims).

FYI- When Townsend ran for Govenor,She was so bad that she lost to a Rebublican, Bob Erlich. Liberal, Democratic Maryland,saw thru her and elected a Republican- the first since Agnew. She was a horrible LT-governor, and even the people of Maryland would not elect her.......

Like I said this AM,...I just put this up as a clear view into the enemy's conning tower.

GTC

I wouldn't believe a fookin' word the Waffen BATFEces has to say. They manufacture evidence and lie all the time. Why would a report on Mexico be any different?

Plus anything a Kennedy says, can be dismissed as a lie too.

This whole thing about US guns in Mexico is a contrived lie that the govt, their toadies in the media, socialists and the anti-gun groups are pushing to sway public opinion in favor of an new and improved AWB.
I can almost bet you that there is a PR campaign being waged in the same manner as Wolfowitz and company did with PR firms for the Iraq war.

Drug cartels have no shortage of money. The same Central and South American sources that arm groups like FMLN, FARC, Shining Path and other low-grade guerilla groups will gladly accept cash from the cartels. I would even bet that ol' Hugo in Venezuela and Raul in Cuba aren't above moving weapons from or through their countries to the cartels just to screw with the US. I'm sure they have their "Yuri Orlovs" too to maintain several degrees of separation. Let's not forget that a big source is from corrupt elements in the corrupt Mexico govt itself.

"While the statistic that the Anti's always use for gun deaths is 30K annually, they never mention that greater than 50% of those are suicides."

then let's further take out the percentage of those killed in gang violence, who are not using legally purchased firearms...

and lets further take out the percentage of those killed in urban ghetto black on black crime...

issues that the liberal left never want to seem to take out of those stats, which make up 90% of their total stats...not honest citizens...

so lets disarm the country and then see what a safe haven that these liberals have turned the country into, both from domestically based threats and foreign based threats...

"All it would do is hurt the honest law abiding person and give the still armed criminal an even better advantage."

That IS the obvious fact of the matter. Therefore it's more than safe to assume that is OBVIOUSLY their goal.

The enemy isn't the mexican drug cartel. The enemy isn't murderous criminals. The enemy isn't gunshow loopholes. The enemy isn't America's existing gun laws. The enemy isn't American gun dealers or other FFL's. The enemy isn't our southern border nor Mexico's. The enemy isn't drugs. The enemy isn't terrorists or terrorism or extremism or NRA or lawful gun owners or even the guns and ammunitions and other munitions themselves, legally acquired or otherwise and/or full-auto and "shoot from the hip" or otherwise....

Hmmmmm....

Step ONE is to identify the REAL enemy.

Hmmmmmmm....