McCain: US gun limits wouldn't stop drug cartels

McCain: US gun limits wouldn't stop drug cartels
By JACQUES BILLEAUD, The Associated Press
4:48 p.m. May 15, 2009

PHOENIX — The drug war in Mexico shouldn't be used as an excuse to try to restrict American gun rights, Sen. John McCain said Friday at the National Rifle Association's convention.

The Arizona Republican and former presidential candidate told thousands of people in Phoenix that the United States needs to do more to crack down on gun smuggling into Mexico, but that such assistance in Mexico's war against drug cartels doesn't require restrictions on the gun rights of law-abiding Americans.

"It should be noted that any effort to restrict gun ownership in the U.S. will not stop Mexican cartels from acquiring guns and ammunition from other countries," McCain said. He added that cartels are already getting grenades and other weapons from other countries.

McCain said the cartels threaten the security of the United States because America doesn't have a secure southern border and has a big appetite for illegal drugs from Mexico. Kidnappings tied to drug and immigrant smuggling have earned Phoenix the title of America's kidnapping capital.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon is waging a war against his country's powerful drug cartels. The drug organizations also are fighting each other for the most lucrative drug and immigrant smuggling routes into the United States.

Calderon has sent more than 45,000 soldiers to drug hotspots beginning in December 2006. More than 10,750 people have died in drug violence since then. Federal agents in the United States say many guns recovered at killings in Mexico were smuggled there through the United States.

Like other speakers at the NRA convention, McCain said the U.S. government has overstated the prevalence of guns being smuggled from the United States into Mexico.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Democrats are using violence reported in the news to frighten the public and push proposals – such as a revival of the expired assault weapons ban – that would restrict the gun rights of law-abiding people.

"In February, President Obama's administration concocted a crazy theory that crime in Mexico could and should be prevented by banning guns in America," Steele said.

Obama has said he respects Second Amendment rights, but favors "common sense" on gun laws. In February, Attorney General Eric Holder said the administration wanted to bring back the assault weapons ban, but dozens of congressional Democrats oppose such a move.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican who has asked the federal government for more National Guard troops to respond to her state's problems from immigrant and drug smuggling, said the answer to violence along America's southwestern border shouldn't be to take away gun rights.

"The issue is to secure the border and leave the Second Amendment freedoms alone," Brewer said.
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On the Net:
National Rifle Association: http://www.nra.org/

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JOHN, please tell me that your not just figuring this out??
its been a known fact by the american people for months because of mexico and their lies in regard to the guns. everyone knows there is a black market from other countries and that is how most of the weapons are bought.

nah... he's trying to save his political career. He knows he is about to be put out of office so he will tell any lie he has too in order to put a death grip on the Republican liberals and save face and his political career. It's called talking out of both sides of his face

With representatives like McCain and a beauty contest winning running mate, the GRAND OLD PARTY has turned into Goofy Oblique Preposterousness.

Gosh John, you're standin' beside the track but the train already left the station :lol: Most straight thinking Americans figured this out a long time ago

NRA speakers: Mexico violence not excuse for U.S. gun control
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May 15, 2009 - 3:29 PM
BY HOWARD FISCHER, CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES

PHOENIX – Two top Arizona Republicans argued Friday that the escalating violence along the Mexican border should not be used as an excuse for new regulation of firearms.

"The gun control advocates keep coming up with new arguments to restrict our Second Amendment rights," Gov. Jan Brewer said. The most recent, she told the annual convention of the National Rifle Association, relates to violence along the border in Mexico and the question of whether that guns used are coming from this country.

"Well, I'm not having any of that,'' she told her audience to cheers. She said the problems of the border are being used to "cloud the issue'' of border security.

"New gun laws are not the answer to the issue of increasing border violence in Mexico,'' Brewer said. "The issue is to secure the border, and leave the Second Amendment freedoms of United (States) citizens alone.''

Sen. John McCain, speaking later Friday afternoon, picked up on the same theme.

He praised Mexican President Felipe Calderon, saying he has "bravely confronted the cartels.'' And McCain said the United States must do all it can to assist him.

"But let's not use this terrible problem for both Mexico and the United States as an excuse to advance a separate agenda aimed at restricting the rights of Americans'' McCain said.

The senator attacked claims by the Obama administration that 90 percent of the arms seized from Mexican drug cartels came from the United States.

"More accurate is the statistic that 90 percent of the guns the Mexican government has asked or government to trace are of U.S. origin,'' McCain explained, not 90 percent of arms seized. "The fact is that weapons manufactured in the United States are actually stamped 'Made in the USA,' which allows them to be more easily traced than those manufactured in other countries.''

And McCain said efforts to restrict gun ownership in this country will not stop Mexican cartels from acquiring weapons and ammunition from other countries, "just as the drug cartels have done in their acquisition of advanced weapons such as anti-tank missiles, rocket propelled grenades, fully automatic machine guns, mortars and even IEDs,'' none of which are legally available to civilians in the United States.

Not all of the talk was about guns, at least not directly.
Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, singled out members of the Obama administration and some congressional Democrats for special attention, each time eliciting ''boos'' from his audience as he mentioned their names.

One of those on that list was Janet Napolitano, the national homeland security chief. He recalled how she approved the release of a memo last month warning that "right-wing extremists, concerned about government restrictions on the right to own firearms, are prime candidates for conducting violent acts of domestic terrorism.''

"It's so stupid, I won't even go there,'' Steele said.

The Democratic administration and certain members of Congress weren't the only ones called out. NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre added another group to the enemies list: the media.

"The national media has sensed an opening,'' he told the audience, referring specifically to the election of Obama. "They're back with their same tricks.''

La Pierre said what the public sees – and does not see – is being controlled according to a pre-determined agenda. He said readers and viewers are fed a steady dose of stories about criminal misuse of firearms, school shootings and guns in the hands of the mentally ill.

"The story of good people with guns is never told,'' LaPierre said.

"The story of bad people with guns is told repeatedly because it serves their agenda,'' he continued. "It's a ploy to force American culture to join a world standard of behavior.''

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