Posts
by Matthew Benson – 5.17.09
Violence continues to roil south of the border between drug cartels at war with each other and the Mexican government.
But Republican Gov. Jan Brewer says she opposes additional regulations intended to keep weapons purchased in this country from finding their way into the fight.
"New gun laws are not the answer to increasing gun violence in Mexico," Brewer told National Rifle Association members gathered Friday in downtown Phoenix for the gun-rights group's annual convention.
"The answer is to secure the border and leave the freedoms of the United States citizen alone. Don't mess with the Second Amendment," declared Brewer, an NRA member.
Cartel-related violence resulted in more than 6,000 deaths in Mexico last year alone, according to the Arizona Attorney General's Office. Mexican officials say much of the blame lies with the flow of firearms purchased in the U.S. and trafficked south of the border.
Mexican President Felipe Calderón has pushed for the return of a U.S. ban on 19 varieties of semiautomatic, military-style rifles, arguing that violence in his country spiked when the prohibition expired in 2004.
President Barack Obama pledged during the campaign to revive the 1994 ban, but has since acknowledged the political difficulties of doing so. He now says his priority is to rigorously enforce existing gun laws.
U.S. officials say roughly 90 percent of the guns traced in Mexico originated in the United States. But the figure is widely disputed, including by Brewer, because most guns confiscated in Mexico cannot be traced.
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said his push is not for a revival of the federal assault-weapons ban, but rather for state legislation to prevent gun purchases by so-called "straw buyers."
The bill mirrors federal regulations, Goddard said, and would bar the practice of one person fraudulently purchasing a firearm for another. In such instances, the gun purchase is made for an individual who knows they would fail a background check or otherwise be unable to buy the weapon.
"These organized criminals may well bring these same arms back into the United States to attack law-enforcement professionals here," Goddard said. "That's a very serious threat."
Rather than seeking a clampdown on weapons, Brewer aims for heightened border security to keep the drug wars from spilling north.
Related stories:
Brewer hints at backing gun-in-car law-AZ Daily Star -
NRA meeting becomes GOP rally Administration is called hostile toward gun rights--AZ Daily Star
