Obama, Mexico & Guns

Update below.

From here:

“MEXICO CITY, April 16–President Obama will announce in a visit here today that he will push the U.S. Senate to ratify an inter-American arms trafficking treaty designed to curb the flow of guns and ammunition to drug cartels and other armed groups in the hemisphere.

Senior administration officials confirmed that he will make the announcement after meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon this afternoon. The meeting is the centerpiece of Obama’s first visit to Mexico, whose government is engaged in a broad war against heavily armed drug cartels now threatening the integrity of the state.”

Also in the news:

“Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Wednesday made an assertion — cited in the past by Mexico’s U.S. ambassador and even by U.S. leaders, but debunked as a myth — that 90 percent of the weapons intercepted in Mexico come from the U.S.

…

Calderon’s comments came days after Auturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the United States, appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” and made the same claim that 90 percent of the weapons intercepted in Mexico come from the U.S.

FOX News debunked that claim in a report earlier this month that found only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S., though even that figure is an imprecise estimate.

Calderon and Sarukhan aren’t the only one to cite this myth. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, California Sen. Diane Feinstein and Willliam Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have all said that 90 percent of weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the U.S.”

Here’s even more. Can there be any doubt now as to his intentions concerning the second amendment?

“Reviving a ban on assault weapons and more strictly enforcing existing gun laws could help tamp down drug violence that has run rampant on the U.S.-Mexican border, President Obama said Thursday.

“We can respect and honor the Second Amendment while dealing with assault weapons,” Obama says in Mexico.

Speaking alongside Mexican President Felipe Calderón, Obama said he has “not backed off at all” on a campaign pledge to try to restore the ban. It was instituted under President Clinton and allowed to lapse by President George W. Bush.

“I continue to believe that we can respect and honor the Second Amendment right in our Constitution — the rights of sportsmen and hunters and homeowners that want to keep their families safe — to lawfully bear arms, while dealing with assault weapons that, as we know here in Mexico, are used to fuel violence,” Obama said.

Obama and Calderón spoke after completing a wide-ranging meeting that included talk of the deadly border situation.

Calderón said that the link between Mexican drug violence and the U.S. ban on 19 types of military-style semi-automatic rifles — which lapsed in 2004 — is clear.

“From the moment the the prohibition on the sale of assault weapons was lifted a few years ago, we have seen an increase in the power of organized crime in Mexico,” Calderón said.

He said that more than 16,000 assault weapons have been seized in the crackdown on drug traffickers, with almost 9 in 10 coming from the United States.

Some observers have said Obama may be slow to reintroduce the ban in Congress, where it would be sure to spark a fight at a time when his administration needs all the political clout it can muster to push its aggressive economic recovery efforts.

Calderón acknowledged the debate’s thorny nature.

“We know that it is a politically delicate topic because Americans truly appreciate their Constitutional rights,” he said. “As long as we are able to express clearly what our problems in Mexico are, then we might be able to also seek a solution that respects the constitutional rights of Americans, that at the same time will avoid organized crime becoming better armed in our country.”

Obama said he has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to study how current gun laws are enforced and whether loopholes in some can be tightened. He said laws already on the books should restrict the flow of weapons into Mexico.”

Montana Passes HB246 »« CNN on “Tea Party” Protest

CNN on “Tea Party” Protest

Proving once again why no one I know watches them.

Obama, Mexico & Guns »« Video for a Taxing Day