When I heard the story I thought "Not Possible." And why would any hired gun want a M-16 instead of an AK? I'm a Tanker not a small arms guy, but the story just didn't add up, nor did the pictures of the weapons I saw. It looked like alot of shotguns to me. Once again what gun would you bring to a gun fight? Me?- a 120mm and 3 machine guns.
This is a political aim to increase Gov't control by using their buds the left leaning media.

So while the first statement clearly says , "Of the 90 percent of the guns (which are) traced to the US, only 17 percent of the guns used to commit crimes in Mexico are traced to the US."

That means that 83 percent of the guns used in crimes in Mexico are from Mexico or other than the US. This also means that the people like the press and Mrs. Clinton and Senator Fienstein are purposefully misstating the problem, to use this lie to address gun ownership rights in the US.

Have they addressed how many crimes committed in the US are committed by illegals?

No. For this would bring attention to the real issue which is border security.

Suppose I wanted to become an arms smuggler. I just want to know where I would go here in Texas to buy one of those full-auto rifles, hand grenades, Stinger missiles, etc. The folks who are doing most of the talking on this subject, including the Secretary of State, think you can go by the local WalMart and load up the shopping cart with such items. They do not have a clue about this subject. By the way, since November, semi-auto AR 15's have disappeared off the civilian market and are back-ordered at all manufacturers. I suspect we know why.

I've written the Houston Chronicle and New York Times in response to articles on this subject, but they choose not to print them.

Godspeed on your overseas mission and we'll try to watch your back here at home.

Jim Blackstone

William LaJuenesse is right on, Mike. Now you know why we believe in the second amendment. It is the government and this present administration that we don't trust as far as we can throw. They flat out lie. They also aren't telling the truth on other important points concerning illegals flooding into our country and the effect they are having on our country. This administration, in spite of the big talk, do not plan on doing anything that is needed to stop the problems we are having in Arizona and elsewhere. Like you say, you have to have your boots on the ground to know what is really happening. Well, our boots are on the ground here in Arizoana and we know that the solution is securing that border with a lot more border patrol and if neccessary National Guard with weapons to match what they are facing there. This administration is not going to do that...period. Again, you have to listen closely to them because they certainly do try to mislead with words. But we are onto them. Also the new Attormey General and the court systems are doing all they can to hinder us. They have all but shut down ICE and are working on stopping our own sheriffs from enforcing the laws on the books. Few have put out the information on Obama's plans to set up refugee camps on our side of the border for the Mexicans who want to flee the fighting in Mexico. Now that is going to be a real mess, isn't it? That is all we need here in Arizona and I can tell you isn't going to go over well... AT ALL! Maybe that is why they don't advertise it. But you have to really search to find this little fact. Homeland Security is a laugh. Hey, we were stuck with the new head of Homeland Security here in Arizona as our Govenor. We already knew where she is coming from and she isn't on the side of American citizens here on the border. More big talk and no action that amounts to anything. Thanks for your dispatches on this topic. The main way right now that we have to fight is by getting out the truth...Remember it is the truth that will make and keep us free. A strong man, or woman, armed keeps his or her house now days. Sorry it has come to that but because of crooked, corrupt politicians it has come to that. There is absolutely no reason we can't secure that border and provide good jobs at the same time by increasing the border patrol and other needed boots on the ground. As they say...the political will is just not there because politicians have their own agenda and it isn't pro-America, pro-constitution or pro-Military as far as that goes. That includes most politicians today, not just democrats but mostly democrats. If the border is secure the drugs don't cross into our country and therefore no drug money will flow back into Mexico. Of course there are other ways of entry that also need to be closed down. Drugs aren't the only problem concerning our border but that is the one you focused on, Mike. Secure the border and clean house in DC is our goal...Good luck to you, Mike, stay safe as possible in Afghanistan and we'll all be reading your dispatches for more of the truth as we continue to fight the war going on here at home. God bless America and our Millitary because you are so right about Obama's "plan" in Afghanistan....It won't work either. Thanks Mike and our thoughts will be with you.

Suppose I wanted to begin smuggling arms to Mexico. Just where would I go here in Texas to purchase, legally or illegally, full-auto rifles, hand grenades, antitank rockets, etc. The folks doing most of the talking on the subject think I can go down to the local WalMart and load up the shopping cart with them.

Ignorance is a dangerous thing.

I did a bit orf research and thes are the numbers I came up with that theydont want you to see.

If he would cut off the illegal aliens we wouldn't hasve hospitals going bankrupt...but he wont or pelosi wont.

Illegal alien social service costs us since 1996
$46,580,000,000

Illegal Immigrants in country since 1996
20,106,234

Money wired To Mexicxo since 1996
$20,014,000

Money wired to Latin America
$213,749,999,000

Children in public schools
2,250,665

Cost of kids of illegals in school k-12
$1,295,5000,000

Illegal imigrants incarcerated
20,291,665

Cost of Incarcerations Since 2001
$6,558,690

Illegal Immigrant Fugitives
16,518,060,765

Anchor Babies Since 2002
1,869,630

Skilled Jobs Taken by Illegal Immigrants
9,704,163

If we got rid of all these we wouldn't have a health care problem. The cost is run up because the illegals dont pay for anything and the bill is stuck on us that are residents.

for automatic weapons and RPGs and grenades and such smuggled into Mexico from other countries? Or are you thinking that somehow all this stuff is being smuggled into the US, and THEN to Mexico? When there's all that Mexican coastline and a southern border to smuggle stuff over without worrying about local LE and ATFE and the FBI? I'd think the Mexicans would be far more worried about actual military arms than about some shotguns, handguns and rifles being smuggled from the US.

Personally, as to your 'dread to think how many firearms there actually are in the US', I hope the government has no damn idea; if you're an honest citizen it's nobody's damn business how many you own, or how much ammo.

I wrote a letter to my hometown paper on March 27th about the discrepancy between the public claims and the actual numbers, at least for 2008. They published it yesterday.

"What are they for exactly?"

Collecting. Plinking. Hunting. Competition. Sporting Clays. Investments. Buying an AR and hanging six pounds of crap off the rails. Self defense. Distrust of Government. In the case of large caliber rifles on private ranges, breaking stuff from several hundred meters away. Just to have one. For the hell of it. There aren't many bad reasons for acquiring a firearm, though there are some silly ones (the hanging crap off the rails reason is one).

"And what could possibly stop a goodly proportion of the extant firearms population finding thier way South of the Border."

I can think of a number of things that would prevent the guns from crossing the border. Mostly it boils down to 'we like our guns, so why would we sell them to criminals?' Weapons already in private hands may well have significant sentimental value. For example, if I managed to acquire either the Remington Nylon (it went to an uncle so he could teach his kids) or the .22 revolver my dad used to teach me to shoot, I would never let them go. Firearms are getting more expensive by the minute, so anyone bothering to buy one in the first place has a very good reason to hold on to it. Those who go through the rigmarole of acquiring them legally probably want to -keep- them or at the most give them away to people they know personally. Most gun owners are law-abiding. CHL or CCW holders are even more law-abiding. Gun running is wrong. We know it. We know also that it would cost us valuable privileges. Finally, in the case of .50 rifles, usually priced in the mid to high four figures, I can think of no incentive - none at all - to sell them across the border after going to the trouble of saving up for the weapon or financing it. Imagine that. Financing a firearm. But I guess some people really, really want a .50 BMG. More power to them.

I wonder how many of those 5,114 weapons traced to the US are FN made M-16's that belonged to the Mexican Army. Seeing that 150,00 desertion number, I bet quite a few. They will be serialized (and traceable), but have never been available on the US consumer market.
The FOX article says M-16's made in Belgium, but I am pretty sure they are made only in FN's South Carolina plant.

Michael,

I am very disappointed in you. I have been reading your work for quite a while now. I have donated what I could. My autographed and well thumbed copy of Moment of Truth in Iraq is a few feet from me in my bookcase. This is the first time that I have ever doubted your independence or veracity. I find it disappointing that you would accept the word of politicians like Hillary Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, and William Hoover. In late 1995, I was a police sergeant. My team had a BATFE agent assigned to work with us to try to make illegal gun cases as we chased drug dealers. Our agent told me to be very careful working with BATFE agents as his own brother agents were not trustworthy. He said there were extreme pressures on them to make cases and that pressure caused them to cut corners with officer safety and violate peopleƒ??s rights to generate statistics. That attitude is exactly what led to the Chinese fire drill at Waco. Local cops heard that BATFE was working on something involving Koresh and offered to arrest him. They saw him at least weekly on the streets of Waco and usually had a chat with him. The BATFE denied that they were working on him because they wanted to use their ingenious plot involving the fake cattle truck and wanted to have news media cameras filming them taking the notorious criminal down without any local yokels detracting from their news-making events.

Michael, Where is all of the profanity by the gun fanatics that you talked about? I read all of the comments that I could find and they all seemed to be well thought out and pertinent. Did you make up what you said about pro-gun fanatics cussing you out?

I'm glad that someone else did the math that i did in your last post about this (before you even added your commentary!) about the sneaky line in there about "of the firearms sent to the ATF for trace and that could be traced..."

Any time that government officials use the word "undisputable fact" (sic), then you know that it is probably not a fact at all. Or it is a fact, but they've worded it so that while it may be a fact, it doesn't support the argument they are trying to support.

Thanks for following up on this, Michael.

(unrelated: are you aware that some percentage of the time the word verification image doesn't appear so you can't post? Its happened to me several times now!)

Helloooooooo. Guns would not be flowing to Mexico through our country if the Feds were doing their job and protecting our borders. If we were being protected properly, borders were manned, fenced, whatever it takes....smuggled guns AND maybe a few of the hundreds of thousands of illegals we are end up supporting, would be intercepted. But then we have our Secretary of State claiming it is OUR fault. Puleeze. I am fed up with these near traitorous leaders, their cowardess and lack of a sense of nationalism.

It's time for a lot of people to stand up for their right to a sovereign country. Peaceful rebellion is in the air.....but will become more forceful if our elected officials continue to ignore our laws. Needless to say, especially being a border state, now, of all times, is hardly the occasion for giving up our guns or allowing ourselves to be legislated out of owning and using guns for protection.

Mexico and MEXICANS....It's time to clean up your own mess, including corrupt officials and the infamous, brutal drug lords and their thugs. We are, definitely, tired of cleaning up your mess as you run across the border and expect us to support you. Have YOU no nationalism. Stay and fight for your great country.....as we did ours. Valerie in Arizona8

I think this whole story could be used as an example of how this administration does business. A more modified version of Clinton 101, possibly. Take a story with legitimate concerns and use it for another agenda. The Secretary of State (God help us!) says that it is our fault that guns are going into Mexico. With her it will always be "our fault". So why this line of blame? Simple, gun control. This may not be the main argument, but more like a part of the whole argument. Gun control has always been at the top of the list for the Democratic Liberal Agenda.

An interesting quote at the end of the story, "But Tom Diaz, senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center, called the "90 percent" issue a red herring and said that it should not detract from the effort to stop gun trafficking into Mexico.

"Let's do what we can with what we know," he said. "We know that one hell of a lot of firearms come from the United States because our gun market is wide open."

Ok, so its a political analyst, I know that, but it might as well have come from the mouth of our incompetent SoS. "Let's do what we can with what we know"...I guess regardless of the facts. "...our gun market is wide open". Well, if its wide open the what would the conclusion be? We must close it down some then huh?
The Secretary of State could give two flips less about whats going on in Mexico. All she sees, and so does the Obama administration, is an opportunity to forward the agenda, gun control.
Who in this world doesn't know that the Mexican government is one of the most corrupt around? It hasn't changed because Obama is now President of the US. Business as usual down there.
I agree with those who want a wall built. The examples given were great ones. But it won't happen with this administration, just like it didn't happen with the last.
Forget trying to land planes into US landmarks, why not just get on a truck and come into the US via trucks?

Mexicos history is one party rule since the overthrow of its dictator. The recent two party rule is only a few years old. Like all countries with dictators and a single party it is full of fear of assassination. Mexicos problems are a long time in the making; a ruling elite with no middle class, a bureaucracy that takes bribes to get anything done and police who are used to absolute authority over all citizens except the ruling elite. So the logic of single party rule was continued. Keep all guns out of the hands of anyone who was not fully trusted and keep the general populace in fear of the government, back that up with guilty till proven innocent judicary and a brutal corrupt police. The problem now is the drug runners have more money than the government and have taken over using the same tactics the government used. So some guns may come from the US but the weapons of war come from other locations. Every one I know supports the strict control of war machines. That being said the following truism holds: A country that cannot control its borders is not a country it is a place. So the USA is a place and until we recognize that what is going on is our fault because we will not control our borders or our 60 billion or so of annual drug consumption all of this will continue. Still our politicans are unknowing, care only for headlines and generally do not speak but spew donkey dust.

I recall one woman telling Mr. Yon to kiss her A**. I think the bad ones are pulled, you can make your point without talking s#*t. I have seen a few. It just shows the mind set of people who use vulgarity, no reason for that.

I have read Mr. Yon's site for years and it seems like the main media outlets are always behind his reporting. Personally I think by Mr. Yon putting the topic out there for the media to pay attention to is why Fox picked it up and ran with it. Some times you have to kick the milk over to get to the truth. Mike Yon has been kicking the milk over for years to uncover the truth, there are many ways to do it, don't judge too fast. Fox news has ran many of Mr. Yon's stories don't think that the media does not pay attention to him, I think sometimes that is where they get most of their stories from in what Mr. Yon's post for review or discussion.
Mr. Yon may have very well played to the media to get to the truth, just an idea from watching his site for years.

Could we have a group of the government, NRA, and reporters to do a very open search for the truth? For one letƒ??s hold the Mexican governmentƒ??s feet to the fire and say show me. I would very much like to see the NRA involved in this matter, to help give some balance to those in government that don't like the second admin much.