I live in El Paso, TX, just across the Rio Grande from Juarez, Mexico, the most violent city in the world. Baghdad and Kabul can't hold a candle to it. Last year there were over 2500 murders and this year there will be more than that. Nobody goes over there any more; the violence is unremitting. It didn't used to be that way; we went over there a lot. There used to be a club called Max Fim's. They had great steaks, a good bar and a little dance floor. It was a great place to take a date. A few years ago, three men walked in with AK 47s and killed five people at a table, one of them a woman. A Juarez police lieutenant having lunch across the street heard the shots and came runnning, pistol in hand; they shot him too. Men, women and children are gunned down, many for no reason and with no connection to the drug industry, apparently to establish a reign of terror. A few weeks ago a couple at a birthday party were killed as they drove back to the States. The hit squad was told they were in a white SUV. There were two white SUVs at the party; so they hit them both. So far over 30,000 Juarenses have left homes, possessions and jobs to find refuge in El Paso. Shops have no business, restaurants are closed, businesses are going under, and the streets are empty at night.
El Paso is eerily quiet; it's the second safest city of its size in the US. There's no gang violence, no drive by shooting, no organized car theft even. The Police Chief attributes it to good policing. However it's likely that the cartels have put the word out that they want no rumpus in El Paso that will attract a larger police presence and make it more difficult to transship drugs. There have been a few exceptions; a liertenant in one of the cartels lived in El Paso. He was also an informant for the DEA. A hit squad crossed the border and got him as he left his house for work one morning. His home was just behind that of the El Paso Chief of Police, who heard the gunfire and called his forces, but the hitmen were long gone when they arrived.
El paso is an attractive transshipment point. There's a huge flow of legitimate cargo across the border and Interstate 10 goes through the city. Once on I 10, the interstate system gives easy access to all the large population centers in the US. That rancher killed in Arizona probably interrupted a drug shipment intended to be picked up on I 10.
What does all this have to do with the 2d Amendment? The Mexican government has long been paranoid about the private ownership of firearms in America. When Texas was debating our CCW law in the early 90s, Mexico lobbied vigorously against it saying that the inevitable violence would spill over into Mexico. That didn't happen, of course. Now they have an ally in the Obama adminstration. Mexico and the BATFE claim that the US is the greatest supplier of guns for the cartels. It's hard to convince the non-gun person in the US who sees AK 47s for sale here, that these aren't the ones with a FA capability that are used in Mexico. Of course, with AKs selling on the international market for $50 or so, it's hard to see why they would buy the $400 SA only versions from here. More likely the cartels get them for nothing from Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez or Red China. Quite a few years ago the BATF caught a shipment of over 1500 AKs from China coming through their port at Long Beach, destined for LA street gangs to destabilize the US. I dont doubt the AKs going to the cartels are sent with the same purpose in mind. Nevertheless, when the Obama adminsitration moves against gun owners, it will probably be with the two excuses of reducing the flow of arms to the drug cartels and decreasing 'Domestic Violence".
El Paso is eerily quiet; it's the second safest city of its size in the US. There's no gang violence, no drive by shooting, no organized car theft even. The Police Chief attributes it to good policing. However it's likely that the cartels have put the word out that they want no rumpus in El Paso that will attract a larger police presence and make it more difficult to transship drugs. There have been a few exceptions; a liertenant in one of the cartels lived in El Paso. He was also an informant for the DEA. A hit squad crossed the border and got him as he left his house for work one morning. His home was just behind that of the El Paso Chief of Police, who heard the gunfire and called his forces, but the hitmen were long gone when they arrived.
El paso is an attractive transshipment point. There's a huge flow of legitimate cargo across the border and Interstate 10 goes through the city. Once on I 10, the interstate system gives easy access to all the large population centers in the US. That rancher killed in Arizona probably interrupted a drug shipment intended to be picked up on I 10.
What does all this have to do with the 2d Amendment? The Mexican government has long been paranoid about the private ownership of firearms in America. When Texas was debating our CCW law in the early 90s, Mexico lobbied vigorously against it saying that the inevitable violence would spill over into Mexico. That didn't happen, of course. Now they have an ally in the Obama adminstration. Mexico and the BATFE claim that the US is the greatest supplier of guns for the cartels. It's hard to convince the non-gun person in the US who sees AK 47s for sale here, that these aren't the ones with a FA capability that are used in Mexico. Of course, with AKs selling on the international market for $50 or so, it's hard to see why they would buy the $400 SA only versions from here. More likely the cartels get them for nothing from Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez or Red China. Quite a few years ago the BATF caught a shipment of over 1500 AKs from China coming through their port at Long Beach, destined for LA street gangs to destabilize the US. I dont doubt the AKs going to the cartels are sent with the same purpose in mind. Nevertheless, when the Obama adminsitration moves against gun owners, it will probably be with the two excuses of reducing the flow of arms to the drug cartels and decreasing 'Domestic Violence".
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