Tuesday, March 13, 2007

MORE GUNS...

...er, less crime? In Mexico? I don't think so:

Human and drug smuggling organizations in Mexico are getting their guns from the same places law-abiding citizens are getting theirs -- licensed gun dealers and gun shows, according to court documents.

"There's an iron river of guns flowing to Mexico," said special agent Thomas Mangan, spokesman for the Phoenix office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Search warrant affidavits show smugglers are getting guns from "straw purchasers," people with clean records who buy guns for smugglers, who then sneak them across the border for a few hundred dollars.

...On Jan. 21, agents with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Cedric Lloyd Manuel and Miguel Apodaca of Phoenix with nine assault rifles at the Arizona-Mexico border.

The guns had been bought the day before at gun stores in Apache Junction, Scottsdale and Phoenix. They were purchased by three brothers, Lucio, Rosendo and Marcos Aguilar.

Between November and the Jan. 21 arrests at the border, the Aguilars and others in the straw-purchasing crew bought 66 assault rifles, records show....


But, of course, Arizona couldn't possibly change any of the following state gun laws, right?

Anti-Trafficking
Is there a one-handgun-per-month limit on gun sales?
No

...Gun Show Checks
Are background checks required at gun shows?
No

...Record Keeping
May police maintain gun sale records?
No

...Secondary Sales
Are background checks required on 'private' gun sales?
No


Heavens no! Perish the thought. That would be tantamount to raising Adolf Hitler from the dead and appointing him governor-slash-totalitarian dictator, in Arizona and every other Real American (i.e., non-wimpy-liberal) state, right?

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