Web Letters: Blowback at the Border

The "90 percent of the guns used by drug gangs" figure that is bandied about by the the Obama administration and echoed mindlessly by the media is a devious misstatement of fact. Approximately 90 percent of guns submitted by the Mexican authorities for identification "originate" in the US. But it is only 17 percent of the total of all guns confiscated.

The term "originate" is also misleading. Most of these guns are of military origin. The US military has shipped hundreds of thousands of weapons to Central and South American regimes and guerrilla groups over the years. Many of these guns are finding their way into Mexico via the open border with Guatemala. So in fact a very small percentage of the weapons used by the Mexican drug cartels are actually coming from legitimate firearms dealers in the US. Probably less than 5 percent of the total.

But then, 5 percent is not a useful figure if your goal is to demonize firearms generally and misinform the sheeple of this country.

Steve Boe

Graytown, WI

The mainstream media has reported that many of the guns are coming from this side of the border. It also reported that the cartels were using Mexican trucks to bring the drugs north, which may be one reason they cut the funding for cross-border trucking. ABC showed a Mexican truck picking up drug money and taking it to Mexico. Mexico may need a fence to keep the guns out of Mexico?

Pervis James Casey

Riverside, CA

I was about to subscribe to your publication after reading many sample articles. Unfortunately, I then looked over this article by Peter Schrag, in which he states that "90 percent of the guns used by drug gangs, including a growing number of military-type assault weapons, come from American gun dealers." This is an incorrect statistic that has been in the news lately and been corrected by the ATF. Ninety percent of all traceable firearms are from the United States, but less than 20 percent of all guns in question are actually from this country. I'm disheartened to find that The Nation seems to be one more example of American media not taking time to fact check the information they report.

Angela Henkell

Martinez, CA