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The Austin Statesman of course blindly ran the WashPost story on their front page today:

http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/gu ... _frontpage" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Par for the course. Not even sure why I'm posting this. Not like its news or even the slightest bit unusual for the Statesman to parrot what WashPost or NYT writes.

EconDoc wrote:I have no doubt that most of the weapons used by the drug cartels were made in the USA. What I doubt is that the majority were purchased from dealers or bought face-to-face in the US. Here is an interesting factoid that I noticed on a National Geographic program called "Border Wars". They showed an M16 that they said was made in the US. Attached to it was a grenade launcher. The camera zoomed in on the grenade launcher and, sure enough, it said "Made in USA". Now, we all know that functional grenade launchers are classified as "Destructive Devices" by BATFE, and, thus, are tightly controlled in the US. Right next to the "Made in USA" marking was another marking that had been obscured by a big blob of white paint. Anybody want to bet that marking was either a Mexican military or police stamp? I am certain that it was. To my mind the pipeline for arms to Mexico goes like this: 1. Mexican government buys arms for their military and police from US companies. 2) Some of those arms are then stolen from the Mexican government by corrupt military and police officials and sold to the cartels. And, lawful gun owners in the US get blamed by the media. Any comments?

that's certainly one very likely scenario. the other is the drug cartels are rich and powerful enough to buy whatever arms they want (including grenades, full-auto guns etc) from arms dealers on the international black market. Why send mules to the US to buy semi-auto guns at inflated retail prices when they can buy full-auto guns for half that from the black market that also supplies genocides in African etc.

I'm sure some desperate drug gangs do get some guns from straw purchases and other means more closely linked to the US civilian gun market. But it's a small amount of the total.

Lodge2004 wrote:More of the media working on their narrative...

"No other state has produced more guns seized by police in the brutal Mexican drug wars than Texas. In the Lone Star State, no other city has more guns linked to Mexican crime scenes than Houston. And in the Texas oil town, no single independent dealer stands out more for selling guns traced from south of the border than Bill Carter."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02663.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That article, and the entire Washington Post hatchet job, is infuriating

The little snippets of video linked from the story are even worse http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sp ... 0121203267" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So 115 guns originally sold at one of four Houston-area Carter's Country locations over an unknown time-span end up being used in crimes in Mexico or by illegal immigrants from Mexico. And that alone is reason enough for the Washington Post to portray Bill Carter as some sort of illicit provider of guns to criminals? PUH-LEEEZE!!! I haven't lived in Houston for more than 10 years now, but Carter's Country is still one of if not the largest gun retailer in town right? How many guns do they sell in a year? 10,000? 15,000? So 1% of the guns they sell are traced back to crimes and it's Bill Carter's fault? And the police officer's widow is suing BILL CARTER because some illegal alien killed her husband with a gun from Carter's Country? Why doesn't she sue the murdering illegal immigrant's wife for making the illegal straw purchase? Why doesn't she sue the Federal government for allowing yet another illegal immigrant to cross the border? We already know she blames Bill White for something to do with her husband's death (same woman from the now-famous campaign commercial).

I don't know Bill Carter. Never met the man. Don't especially like his store or his gun/ammo prices. But I used to use his shooting range in north Houston when I lived there and it's a very nice place. And the store is very nice and well stocked (just pricey, IMHO).

But I can't stand that this newspaper story is painting him as some "crime gun" pusher.

RIDICULOUS!

Washington Post is running a massive 5-part series on "The Hidden Life of Guns" ... this story is one part of the overall package (which is quite, shall we say, BIASED )

Anyway, this little snippet from this particular portion bothers me (didn't realize they'd done this) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 0121203267" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Makes me question whether I should spend any more of my money at Academy if they're going to voluntarily give up RKBA rights like this as a public relations move.

About seven miles west is the store No. 5: A cademy Sports and Outdoors , with 95 traces. A family-owned chain based in Houston, Academy has 128 stores throughout the South, including eight along the border with Mexico. With the violence increasing and more guns being traced to Academy's outlets, about a year ago the chain removed all tactical weapons, such as AK-47s and AR-15s, from the shelves of its border stores.

"We voluntarily and proactively took several actions that would ensure our firearms sales don't contribute to border violence," spokeswoman Elise Hasbrook said.

Academy also limits sales of such weapons, favored by drug cartels, to one per customer, counts its weapons twice a day and audits the inventory weekly, Hasbrook said.