High-powered weapons prized by Mexican cartels

Survey shows ‘bigger is better' with guns smuggled from U.S.

By Dan Freedman
Hearst Newspapers
Updated 12:25 a.m., Monday, May 30, 2011

WASHINGTON — Convicted gun smuggler John Phillip Hernandez wasn't the kind of customer Bushmaster Firearms International had in mind when he bought 14 of its .223-caliber AR-15s at Houston-area gun shops in 2006 and 2007.

Bushmaster describes itself as a “leading supplierâ€