A "South Of The Border" Shoot 'Em Up

This other New York Times story from yesterday tells us…

LOS ANGELES — The rising tide of guns flowing into Mexico from the United States, which is fueling some of the worst drug violence in Mexico in years, can be stopped only by cracking down on smugglers the way federal authorities hobbled the Mafia, the secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff, said Thursday.

I should note, by the way, that Mike (“City of Louisiana”) Chertoff was featured in the prior post also about Putin trying to capture more Arctic oil; never a good sign when Chertoff is your “strategy” guy on a vital issue. And I also don’t understand the Times’ choice of a photo for this story – I’m hard pressed to find any source of amusement here.

Also, you could also make the case that the “mafia” that we have come to know through The Godfather and The Sopranos is in descent, but other international groups, notably from Mexico and Russia, are filling that void.

Continuing…

The Mexican governors sought to emphasize the United States’ place as the chief recipient of drugs and exporter of weapons. United States officials have estimated that 90 percent to 95 percent of the weapons used in Mexico’s drug violence come from the United States.

…

The governors on Friday pledged more cooperation among state law enforcement agencies to curb gun trafficking. For example, Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora across its border, which has experienced heavy fighting among drug gangs, recently signed agreements to share intelligence and use databases to track stolen weapons.

…

In the interview, he said the United States and Mexico were working on penetrating the smuggling organizations, an effort he called vital to dismantling them. Getting inside, Mr. Chertoff said, is particularly important because many of the weapons are bought by middlemen at gun shows and shops and then resold or delivered to the cartels, making them difficult to trace.

In that event, then, I would just call for more restrictions on sales of guns to try and prevent “straw” purchases, such as the type the story describes. Also, I would use this as an opportunity to plug the bill by Dem Rep. Carolyn Maloney McCarthy of New York, which would reauthorize the assault weapons ban (surely assault weapons figure into this deadly mix).

Finally, though the Tiahrt Amendment noted here restricts the ability of cities to use trace data from the ATF when investigating crimes in U.S. cities, I think this is an opportunity to finally push for repeal of this and the odious rider attached by Richard Shelby in the Senate that mandated jail time for law enforcement officials using trace data outside the narrow bounds of what Tiahrt prescribes. I say this because we should share trace data with Mexican authorities also, and it would be silly to do that but restrict that use in this country.

But then again, I’m just a filthy, unkempt liberal blogger, so what do I know?

The governors, pushed by the conference host, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, highlighted the effort to improve the environment and strengthen economic ties. They floated, among other proposals, the idea of an express toll lane at border crossings to ease congestion into the United States and pay for road and other improvements.

“Some people still think of the border only in negative terms,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said at the opening ceremony at a theater near Universal Studios Hollywood. He added: “Every time we turn on the TV or pick up the newspaper we are hit by stories about illegal immigrants and the problems they create. We see that all the time. But I also want people to know about the positive stories.”

I suppose the idea of an express toll late could make sense, but I would really want to know more about what would be required for someone to enter this country in that manner before I approved it. The problem is that we can’t make up our minds on who we should include or exclude, to say nothing of the question of citizenship for illegals or whether or not they should receive driver’s licenses. I would say we should work out all of that stuff first before we think about the equivalent of EZPass for them.

And by the way (speaking of trying to restrict guns), here’s some good news on that front from the Brady Campaign (and by the way, Dems, you are STILL supposed to be the party of gun control; trying to run and hide from that will only make you look more foolish).