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Armed and Safe is a gun rights advocacy blog, with the mission of debunking the "logic" of the enemies of the Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms.

I can be reached at 45superman@gmail.com.You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/45superman.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Weak grenade laws?

It has become popular these days to blame "weak gun laws" in the U.S. for violence in Mexico. Reading the most recent example of that, I found myself left with a question.

For more than a half-hour around noon, the streets of Rio Bravo turned into a war zone after federal agents tried to stop a van carrying three men with machine guns in full view. The men fired on the officers and then fled to a nearby house to join other members of their organization.

Machine-gun fire ripped the air and rocket-propelled grenades whizzed and exploded, as soldiers and federal agents surrounded the house and the gunmen tried to repel them, witnesses told local reporters. There were unconfirmed reports of two other skirmishes in other parts of the city around the same time.
Where in the U.S., I can't help but wonder, can one find these unregulated machine guns and RPG's? Money is tight for me these days, and health issues make travel difficult, but for that kind of thing, I'll do what it takes to set up a shopping trip.
After the gunfight, the federal authorities raided four houses in Rio Bravo and recovered a large cache of military weapons: 16 sniper rifles, 7 machine guns, one grenade launcher and 12 automatic pistols. Flak jackets, a safe, radios, grenades and ammunition were also seized.
Machine guns, a grenade launcher (and grenades), automatic pistols (or is that NY Times-speak for semi-automatic pistols?)--those things aren't covered by "weak gun laws." Why the NY Times thought it important to list radios and a safe among the arsenal is another question.

Next, we get to the inevitable "blame the 'weak gun laws' in the U.S." part.
It remained unclear where the group purchased the weapons, but officials here have sharply criticized the United States in recent days for doing too little to stop the flow of guns into Mexico from states with weaker gun-control laws, like Texas. They acknowledge, however, that Mexico could do more to search vehicles crossing their border.
Mexico could do more to help secure the border? Color me shocked. That is new.
“There is a lack of control in the north-to-south traffic across the border — we are establishing controls — but whoever sells arms in North American territory should be held responsible for the destination and the use of those arms,” Mr. PatiƱo said.
Silly me--all this time I was thinking it was the thugs whom we should hold responsible. I must of thought I lived in a society that valued freedom and personal responsibility, or something.

Anyway, if anyone knows where I can find one of those grenade shops in Texas, let me know.

10 comments:

me said...

WHOA THERE HORSEY!

"but whoever sells arms in North American territory should be held responsible for the destination and the use of those arms"

That's an odd way to refer to the united States of America, isn't it? Even odder is that that whole "NAU" is just a wild conspiracy theory (unless you ask Mr. Fox or look at the SPP)

Now, the arms in question...assuming that they came from the US and not from some terrorist types working their way up INTO the us through our "good friends" to the south they should be plenty easy to track with all the laws and registration. And of course, if one could read the 2A, these would be precisely the type of arms protected, so count me in on that shopping trip.

me said...

oops, forgot to mention, anyone who believes that the three were Americans is as idiot. They might live here, hell, they might have been born here, but that doesn't mean they were Americans.

Kurt '45superman' Hofmann said...

Yeah, I noticed that "North American territory" reference, too, but wasn't sure what to make of it. Maybe he was blaming it on the Canadians ;-).

Clay said...

Sadly the far leftists/socialists in this country have pushed the "blame someone else" agenda so long that nowadays the first thing to do when someone screws up is to try and blame everyone the person has ever come in contact with, instead of the individual.

Anonymous said...

Well, my suggestion would be that they contact the US State Department, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. This agency controls ALL arms exports (from .22 revolvers to missiles) from the US and would be able to trace any weapons exported from the US. And would be interested in US origin weapons that crossed an international border without a license or foreign weapons the were in the US and left without a license. The exporter is responsible for where the weapons end up and they must make a reasonable determination of their intended use. No license to export arms to Mexico will be granted without an approved import license from the Mexican government. Oh and you must have a FFL just to possess the weapons prior to export.

So it would seem to me that Mexico needs to step up their border inspections. Probably on their southern border.

Anonymous said...

No doubt they were purchased through the infamous "RPG show loophole".

Kurt '45superman' Hofmann said...

No doubt they were purchased through the infamous "RPG show loophole".

See, that's the kind of thing that annoys me--no one tells me about these RPG shows. I never hear about the really cool stuff until it's over.

Michael Hawkins said...

Oh don't bother, it's a huge scam.

They sell you the grenades and launchers for dirt, but once you figure out you still need the booster charges, expect to pay through the nose!

mikej said...

I live in Houston, and have visited a number of local stores that sell firearms. The inventory seems to consist mostly of deer rifles, shotguns, and .22 LRs. I've never seen an RPG for sale.

Mexican nationals can buy semi-automatic firearms at stores or gun shows in Texas, but you can thank the guys at BATFE for that. According to their regulations, an (illegal) alien need only show a (phony) driver's license and ninety days worth of (bogus) utility bills to buy a gun from a dealer.

Hollowman21 said...

I just bought a sexy little NDS-3 from DC industries for $500 even the other day but while I was at the Police and Fire equipment store I didn't find those RPG's and grenades I was planning on picking up. It's good to hear those from the "Southern Province of the North American Territory" telling us about our lack of gun laws. Thanks for the heads up Pedro.