90 percent "statistic" just not true

Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
U.S. - MEXICAN BORDER VIOLENCE

That 90 percent "statistic" that we hear quoted day in and day out by people like Obama, Holder, and Clinton is just not true.

In fact, it's not even close. The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S. And, honestly, I am getting a little sick and tired of our 'leaders' doing a mea culpa everytime they get press time or are meeting another government's leader.

What's true, an ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency's assistant director, "is that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S."Keep in mind the numbers of weapons that the U.S. Government ships to Mexico each year because of an agreement with Mexico to do so.

But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.
"Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market," Matt Allen, special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told FOX News.

Auturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the United States, has claimed that Mexico seizes 2,000 guns a day from the United States, or 730,000 a year. But the official statistic from the Mexico attorney general's office says Mexico seized 29,000 weapons in all of 2007 and 2008.

On "Face the Nation," host Bob Schieffer asked Sarukhan for evidence to support his claim that most of the weapons seized are coming from the United States.

"The data we have is the one that we've been sharing with our counterparts in the U.S. government, ATF and the Justice Department, and other agencies that have been working with us to determine where those guns are coming from," Sarukhan replied.

For example, Sarukhan cited the Mexican border town of Reynosa where he said more than 250 assault weapons and half a million rounds of ammo were seized in November.
"These had just crossed over the border from the United States in Mexico," he said. "By tracing these weapons, by looking at the types of weapons, we're determining that most of these weapons are coming from the United States."

Hoover’s written testimony never implied that 90 percent of all the guns being recovered by Mexican authorities from crime scenes are coming from America. It’s not fair to people at the ATF who put together those numbers, and it certainly isn’t fair to millions of American citizens who own the kinds of firearms that Feinstein, Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, or his boss would like to permanently ban. In other words, 68 percent of the guns that were recovered were never submitted for tracing. And when you weed out the roughly 6,000 guns that could not be traced from the remaining 32 percent, it means 83 percent of the guns found at crime scenes in Mexico could not be traced to the U.S. The gun traces to which Hoover was alluding, according to an ATF spokeswoman, hardly represent all of the guns being recovered at Mexican crime scenes. They amount to a fraction of those guns, according to the Fox News report and others, and that’s also what Gun Week will be reporting in its next issue, under my byline.

Fox reporter William La Juenesse was on with KVI talk host Kirby Wilbur Thursday, April 2 noting that in 2007-2008, Mexico recovered some 29,000 guns at crime scenes, but only submitted inquiries about 11,000 guns to the ATF for tracing, and about 6,000 of those firearms were successfully traced. Of those, 5,114 were found to have come from this country. That is the “90 percent” about which Hoover’s written statement dealt.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/04/02/myth-percent-guns-mexico-fraction-number-claimed/
http://www.examiner.com/x-4525-Seattle-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m4d2-Obama-administration-Congressional-antigunners-mislead-public-on-guns-in-Mexico

Now, please tell me just how restricting my 2nd Amendment rights will stop Mexico drug violence? Criminals that can afford to buy high priced weapons would not use a conventional dealer or gun show. They will purchase boatloads of true assault weapons (fully automatic) on the black market. http://www.ojp.gov/bjs/guns.htm . U.S Attorney General Holder should read some of BJS reports before making deals with Mexico to restrict U.S. citizens rights.

Who is unaware that the drug cartels have been around for a while? Do people think that this problem started the day Obama was elected? Are they aware of the fact that Mexico already has a gun ban for its citizens; and that might be a factor in why over 8000 of them have been killed in the last year? Are they aware that there has been cartel activitiy all the way from Colombia to Mexico for at least the last 20 years?

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=327554&CategoryId=14091
Mexico Arrests Cartel Hit Man in Execution of Army General'Officials said he is suspected of leading Los Zetas in Cancun, a leading Mexican tourist destination that is one of the main points of entry for cocaine from Central and South America. According to Sedena, Almanza served as a lieutenant for one of the Gulf cartel's kingpins, Sigifredo Najera.'"In the operation, the Mexican army also seized 23 assault rifles, 20 handguns, 23 grenades, two grenade launchers, a rocket launcher, cartridges and ammunition clips, $42,000 worth of cash, six vehicles and radio equipment."

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=328726&CategoryId=14095"
A total of 20 people have been murdered by gunmen since the beginning of this year in the Alto Huallaga, an important coca leaf and cocaine production zone in Peru’s jungle region where the remnants of the Shining Path guerrilla group operate.." "..The victims – most of them linked to illegal drug trafficking – were murdered in the area " "...the loss of territorial control by Shining Path in the region has allowed medium-sized drug trafficking operations to thrive unchecked,"

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=328724&CategoryId=23558
"Los Zetas, the armed wing of Mexico’s Gulf drug cartel, have threatened to kill Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, ..." "The members of Los Zetas, a band of former Mexican soldiers now working as hired guns for drug traffickers, are allegedly operating in northern and northwestern Guatemala, where they control smuggling routes." "Five suspected Zetas were arrested on Feb. 8 in a joint operation conducted by the PNC and the army on a highway in Alta Verapaz province,,,The men, who entered Guatemala from Mexico in a farm truck, were armed with five AK-47 assault rifles, automatic pistols and a large quantity of ammunition.."

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14090&ArticleId=327494
"Brazilian police on Wednesday arrested 51 members of two narcotics gangs on charges of drug trafficking in that South American nation and other countries,..." "Police seized ecstasy, LSD, cocaine, hashish and an inhalant drug made in Brazil that is a combination of chloroform, ether and fragrance.The Federal Police also said five weapons were seized, including assault rifles, machine guns and handguns.."

http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?articleId=41501613&channelId=2951&buyerId=newsmeatcom&buid=3281
"...Gulf drug cartel and its Zeta hit men are the most violent of Mexico's gangs and account for the highest number of weapons seized.they accounted for a majority of the 31,512 weapons seized by law enforcement officials since December 2005. Those arms include anti-tank weapons, grenade launchers and .50-caliber rifles.The cartel, which recruited a gang of hit men known as Zetas from army deserters, controls cocaine and marijuana trafficking the second-highest number of arms was seized from the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel. Mexico's largest drug trafficking organization, the Sinaloa cartel and its allies, was third in the number of weapons seized..."

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B01E2D81039F930A15756C0A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
"Federal agents today began searching out and arresting representatives of two of China's state-owned arms companies on charges of smuggling 2,000 AK-47 fully automatic rifles into the United States..."

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1468/MR1468.pdf
Page 32 of 101 - Stockpiles of arms dating back to the Cold War, which were originally provided to various combatants in Latin America by the United States and the former Soviet Union, are still readily accessible. During the 1970s and 1980s, the United States, Cuba, and the Soviet Union aggressively sought to promote their ideological agendas in the Americas. One of the most publicized events resulting from the Cold War–era ideological struggle in Latin America was the Iran- Contra Affair. One element of this covert operation involved the U.S. military transferring small arms to Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. But most of these munitions were not M-16s produced by the U.S. arms industry, for example, but rather weapons manufactured in Soviet-bloc countries (e.g., Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles). Information produced during the Iran-Contra hearings revealed that small arms were frequently shipped into Central America from the United States during the Cold War, and these shipments typically included approximately 20,000 to 75,000 pounds of small arms and ammunition.25 Many of these weapons are still available throughout Latin America.

There is more information if you take the time really research the truth. So why are the U.S. reps lying about it? Or...are they too dim to know what is really true?