Mexican Attorney General admits why he wants 'assault weapons' banned in U.S.

I won't go into a lot of detail about this article--it's mostly yet another account about a Mexican official blaming the bloody chaos in Mexico on "lax U.S. gun laws"--yada, yada, yada--we heard you the first thousand times.

What caught my eye was this part:

The Calderón administration has pressed the United States to take steps against gun smuggling before Obama's visit to Mexico City on April 16-17.

Reinstating the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, which expired in 2004, should be at the top of the list, Medina said. The law prohibited the sale of rifles with ammunition clips of more than 10 rounds or with military-style features such as pistol grips. The ban expired in 2004 and was not renewed by Congress.

Assault-style weapons accounted for about one-third of all guns seized by Mexican police during the years of the ban, he said. They now account for 63% of seized weapons, he said.

Though not machine guns and not necessarily more powerful than other types of rifles or pistols, they have an enormous intimidation effect, and the overwhelming majority come from the USA, Medina said.

Get that? He's at least not trying to play the VPC's game of exploiting public ignorance of the difference between so-called "assault weapons" and machine guns, and he even seems to be admitting that they're generally chambered in calibers that are not especially powerful (less powerful, in fact, than most deer rifle rounds). So what is the problem with "assault weapons"? Their "enormous intimidation effect." That's right--we should ban them because they're scary.

Mexico's political and law enforcement system is (in)famous for its corruption, but Attorney General Medina Mora, at least, seems amazingly honest on that issue.