Calderón to Congress: reinstate assault weapons ban

WASHINGTON — Mexican President Felipe Calderón urged U.S. lawmakers Thursday to restore a controversial assault weapons ban, saying easy U.S. availability of the high-powered firearms are contributing to the escalating violence in his country.

Calderón said an increase in drug cartel killings began after Congress lifted the ban in 2004. Today, he said, gangsters point the guns at not only rivals but Mexican authorities and civilians.

“There is one issue where Mexico needs your cooperation, and that is stopping the flow of assault weapons and other deadly arms across the border,” Calderón told a joint session of Congress.

In a 40-minute speech, he also took pointed exception to Arizona's crackdown on immigrants and urged the United States to work with Mexico to fix a broken immigration system.

The comments brought a swift rebuke from House and Senate Republicans who accused the Mexican president of meddling in U.S. affairs.

“It is inappropriate for President Calderón to lecture Americans on our state and federal laws,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. “Moreover, the Second Amendment is not a subject open for diplomatic negotiation, with Mexico or any other nation.”

The assault weapons ban was first approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994. But some of its supporters paid a political price, and Republicans gained control of the House that year with the help of the gun lobby. Calderón acknowledged the political sensitivity of the issue, and said he respects the U.S. Constitution and its guarantee that citizens can defend themselves and their nation.

“But believe me, many of these guns are not going to honest American hands,” Calderón said. “Instead, thousands are ending up in the hands of criminals.”

Mexico has seized 75,000 firearms over the past three years, he said, and 80 percent of them were traced to the United States. Some 7,000 gun shops and dealers dot the border from Brownsville, Texas to San Diego, Calif., Calderón said.

Texas was the state that supplied the most guns and military-grade weapons to Mexican cartels, a San Antonio Express-News investigation on gunrunning has shown. Texas accounted for 41 percent of the guns seized and traced back to the United States, followed by California, at 18 percent, and Arizona, with 10 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms statistics.

[more]

damn furriners got no right t'come here'n'xpress facts—let alone thur opinions!