Blame both sides of border

Andres Oppenheimer

writes for the Miami Herald

When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visits Mexico this week to discuss the drug-related violence that left 6,200 dead there last year, and which is now spreading across the U.S. border, she should be told in unmistakable terms: Stop the trafficking of U.S. guns that is fueling the bloodshed.

Clinton is scheduled to go to Mexico today amid an outcry among increasingly out-of-control, Mexico-bashing hotheads on cable television - yes, I'm talking about CNN's Lou Dobbs and Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck - who are presenting the border violence as if it were an all-Mexican problem, neglecting to mention that drug cartels are thriving thanks to America's voracious drug consumption and its lax gun laws.

Mexico's drug cartels generate between $17 billion and $38.3 billion a year from cocaine, heroin, and marijuana sales in the United States, according to the U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center. And the drug cartels are getting more than 90 percent of their weapons from the United States, officials on both sides of the border say.

Worse, the Mexican drug cartels are buying increasingly powerful military-style weapons, such as Colt AR-15 and AK-47 assault rifles.

"Firearms obtained from the United States are helping fuel the drug violence in Mexico," Kristen Rand of the Violence Policy Center, a gun-control advocacy group, told a congressional panel last week. "It is also clear that military-style firearms, both imported and domestic, are the drug cartels' weapons of choice."

In other words, we are supplying the Mexican drug cartels with war weapons. Unlike standard sporting firearms, these semi-automatic guns have grips that allow them to be "spray-fired" from the hip, and they have the ability to accept detachable ammunition magazines holding up to 100 bullets.

So what should be done? I asked Rand after the hearings. Among her suggestions:

Stop imports into the United States of AK-47-style assault weapons, many of which end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. Critics say the Bush administration did not fully enforce a 1989 ban on foreign assault weapons imports, allowing growing numbers of these guns to end up in U.S. gun shops. "Unfortunately, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has allowed the ban to collapse and has even helped to create loopholes to circumvent it, such as allowing importers to bring foreign-made assault weapons into the country in parts," Rand said.

Pass legislation to effectively ban domestic production of assault weapons, such as AR-type assault rifles, which are now hot sellers in gun shops. A 1994 law banning assault weapons has been rendered ineffective by loopholes that allow production of "copycat" guns.

Crack down on sales of assault weapons at gun shows. While gun-shop dealers have federal licenses that require them to do background checks on their customers, sellers at gun shows in most states can do business without these licenses, and thus without performing background checks. This means that drug cartel members can walk into a gun show and basically buy whatever they want, no questions asked.

Why doesn't anybody stop this craziness? I asked Rand.

"The gun lobby won't let them," she said. "The ATF, members of Congress, the entire federal government is being held hostage by the gun lobby, because its followers are so vocal and persistent that any little improvement in the law is characterized as gun confiscation."

Asked about Rand's criticism of U.S. law enforcement efforts, an ATF spokesman referred me to the Justice Department. Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney sent me an e-mail stating, "ATF enforces the federal firearms laws, including the imports ban."

My opinion: The Obama administration, which seems to be more conscious of the need to crack down on the U.S. assault weapons trade than its predecessor, should more forcefully enforce gun import laws and try to pass new laws curbing U.S. assault weapons production.

But, more than anything, it should change the focus of U.S. anti-drug efforts. Instead of focusing on drug interdiction and supply reduction, which were the core of the American "war on drugs" in recent decades, it should devote a larger portion of its resources to domestic drug prevention and addiction treatment.

Clinton should return from Mexico more convinced than ever that, unless we cut U.S. drug consumption and curb U.S. weapons smuggling, the drug trade will continue growing, and so will the violence along the border.