Pubdate: Mon, 20 Dec 2010 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2010 The Dallas Morning News, Inc. Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/lettertoed.cgi Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117 Referenced: The Washington Post investigation http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n1028/a01.html Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) GUNNING FOR TROUBLE Texas Dealers Must Stop Fueling Mexican Violence Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, registered a macabre milestone last week: its 3,000th homicide in 2010. Reports of the city's deadliest year on record coincided with publication of a Washington Post investigation pointing to a big source of Mexico's deadly violence - Texas gun sales. Some of the Texas gun sellers see no link between their lax scrutiny of suspicious arms purchasers and the escalating level of gun violence south of the border. But when Americans supply weapons used in Mexico's cartel wars and when dollars from American illicit-drug purchases fuel the violence, the blood stains all our hands. Americans can no longer deny this cause and effect. As The Post report makes clear, Texas dealers are the primary sources of firearms used in Mexico's ongoing slaughter. The No. 1 seller whose weapons were traced to Mexican crimes is Carter's Country in Houston. In the past two years, Mexican authorities have seized more than 115 guns sold by Carter's. The Texas gun stores in the report aren't alleged to be breaking laws. A few even notified U.S. authorities about suspicious purchasers. But they were the exception. Law enforcers on both sides of the border complain that U.S. law overly protects sellers by limiting traces on gun purchasers and blocking the identities of U.S. dealers when their guns are seized at Mexican crime scenes. This isn't so much about handguns and hunting rifles. Mexico's gangs are going after semi-automatic AR-15s and AK-47s, sniper rifles and .50-caliber weapons that fire armor-piercing ammunition. A suspect in one investigation bought 14 AK-47s from a single dealer all on the same day. The National Rifle Association contends this is a Mexican law enforcement problem, and American gun laws don't need tweaking. Bill Carter, owner of Carter's Country, even pokes fun at Mexico's problem. "Why all the talk about guns going south when so many drugs are coming north that our cows along the interstate are getting high off the fumes!" he wrote in an April newspaper advertisement. Which side are they cheering for? Outgunned Mexican law enforcers face an even more arduous task restoring order when U.S. suppliers blindly arm the enemy with high-powered weaponry. Some gun dealers have pledged greater efforts to halt or report suspicious purchases, which is laudable. Dealers such as Carter must take this as the deadly serious problem it is. Nonchalance invites legislators to stiffen gun laws in ways that these dealers and the NRA would certainly despise. The blame falls everywhere - to corrupt Mexicans, American drug users, money launderers and gun-selling profiteers. The ones who get the message are those who place a higher value on human life than getting high or making an easy buck. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake