Via the Dallas Morning News:

U.S., Mexico set sights on stopping flow of weapons to cartels

Faced with spiraling drug violence along the border, senior U.S. officials met with their Mexican counterparts Wednesday and announced steps to stem the flow of illegal weapons into Mexico.

Oooh goody! How about we build a big fence, and shoot upon sight any drug running van that gets near it?

Officials said that many of the weapons – including powerful handguns and semiautomatic assault rifles – are purchased legally at shops and gun shows, and that Houston and Dallas are two of the top sources. The guns are typically carried south across the border by multiple couriers whom some officials referred to as an “army of ants.”

And this is our problem … how exactly? Oh, because we pander to La Raza and are terrified of building a fence. Got it.

Even black-market military-style weapons, such as .50-caliber machine guns, bazookas and grenades, have been seized in raids.

And no doubt they were all purchased legally because of that stupid gun show loophole! DAMN THE EVIL GUN LOBBY!

The increasingly sophisticated and powerful weapons pose a risk on both sides of the border, officials said, but especially in Mexico, where at least 105 people have been killed in drug-related violence since 2008 began.

And THAT is our problem … how exactly?

“Drug-trafficking organizations have made life at the border increasingly dangerous,” Michael J. Sullivan, acting director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said in El Paso. “And this danger extends across the border and into several parts of Mexico.“

Raise your hand if you don’t give a shit about Mexico’s problems! And really … we all know this is just posturing by the ATF to look for all the dotted i’s and crossed t’s on legitimate shops in the hopes of shutting them down because of the dangers to our open-borders friends in Mexico. Bleh.

In Mexico City, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said the goal of what officials are calling Project Gunrunner is to dry up the cartels’ arms supply in the U.S. by punishing gun dealers who knowingly sell weapons to “straw” buyers who then resell them illegally.

So we’re using Mexico’s problems to shut down American businesses? Hey, you have such a farking problem with it, secure the border so we don’t have to worry about what goes on down there. We have enough of our own problems - like an over-reaching ATF hell-bent on making every firearm seller in this country a criminal.

“I certainly foresee a tightening-up of the way gun dealers distribute guns if, in fact, they are selling to straw purchasers,” Mr. Mukasey said after meeting with his Mexican counterpart, Eduardo Medina Mora, and Mexican President Felipe Calderón.

How about we keep our guns, and you guys keep all of your illegal aliens.

“I see tighter enforcement of regulations requiring that they get proper identification and that they check these people before they sell guns, and inevitably we are going to find people who are not doing what they ought to do, and they will be prosecuted,” Mr. Mukasey said in an interview.

“I see?” Are you fucking John Edward now (the psychic, not the socialist)? I’ll bet he was sitting there in his office with his helmet on, violently shaking his magic 8 ball. Here’s the transcript:

Mukasey: “Oh wise and powerful magic 8 ball … can we make sure cops are the only ones with guns?” *shakeshakeshake*

8-ball: “My sources say no.”

Mukasey: “Oh wise and powerful magic 8-ball … can we restrict them enough so nobody can legally own them?” *shakeshakeshake*

8-ball: “My reply is no.”

Mukasey: “Crap. Can we take them all away somehow?” *shakeshake*

8-ball: “Outlook not so good.”

Mukasey: “DAMMIT! Can we ban them all?” *shakeshake*

8-ball: “Concentrate and ask again”

Mukasey: “How ’bout now?” *shake*

8-ball: “Reply hazy, try again.”

Mukasey: “Now?” *shake*

8-ball: “Better not tell you now.”

At which point he probably filths his diaper (PSH is a bitch to live with day in and day out) and hurls the thing through a nearby television set.

Look at this crap:

“The weapons we’re seeing now is stuff normally used for war,” said one ATF official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “These guys are armed to the teeth, probably because they have unlimited budgets.”

Some of the weapons “can take out an airplane,” the official said. “The Mexican narco has come a long way.”

One of the most popular weapons is the FN 57, a Belgian-made handgun known in Mexico as mata policias – “cop killer” – because the bullets can penetrate body armor, the official said.

Ugh. Does the inanity never end?

In a “straw purchase,” the weapons are typically bought for drug traffickers by other people – including friends, relatives and, increasingly, women – who are legally entitled to own a gun in Texas. Mexican officials applauded the announcement.

When I go through the background-check dance, I need to check a box that asks, “are you buying this for someone else.” And you’re wondering why a CRIMINAL has no problem checking the wrong box and lying?

Mr. Mukasey compared the drug traffickers to terrorists for their grisly deeds. “It’s the same kind of message the terrorists send: ‘You will do what we want or else,’ ” he said.

He said the drug violence is likely to get worse before it gets better, because the cartels and their paramilitary hit men are now fighting back against the government crackdown.

I guess we can hope that the war on some guns is just as successful as the war on some drugs.

The Bush administration will lobby Congress to support the so-called Merida Initiative, a program of U.S. assistance for anti-drug operations that would give Mexico $500 million in equipment and training this year as part of a three-year, $1.4 billion package.

This SO EXCEEDINGLY pisses me off it’s beyond words. We’re giving them 1.4 billion to solve their problem and we don’t have the balls or the intestinal fortitude to build a fence, arm some patrols, demand to know immigration status for purchases and criminals and make sure that nobody can go in - or out - of this country across a river, over a hill, or wherever they damn well please. This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. 1.4 billion because you’ve got a bunch of murderous thugs in YOUR neighborhood.

You don’t like them buying guns in America?

YOU build the fucking fence.