ATF targets gun-buying by cartels

Billboard campaign warns of peril of purchasing for others

By DANE SCHILLER HOUSTON CHRONICLE
June 24, 2009, 10:06PM


A replica of the billboards that will soon be going up across the Houston area.
(Text in picture: "Buy a gun for someone who can't. Buy yourself 10 years in jail.)


The firearms industry is responding to allegations that Houston stores have become the primary source for Mexican drug cartel weapons by renting dozens of billboards around the city warning that customers who fraudulently purchase guns for others face prison time.

The push comes at the urging of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

It includes 71 roadside billboards and signs in the Houston area, and training for firearms dealers.

The stakes are clear in Houston, as the city is considered by the ATF to be the number one point of origin for military-style weapons traced from Mexican organized crime scenes to U.S. sales counters.

“Those people who buy the guns in Houston have just as much blood on their hands as the people who pulled the trigger down in Mexico,â€