.50 Caliber Rifle In Mexico
BY Herschel Smith
4 years, 5 months ago
Mexican authorities were outgunned by criminal cartels in two notable incidents this month. In both cases, the criminals were armed with high-powered .50-caliber firearms. First, on October 13, in the state of Michoacan, a police convoy was ambushed with .50-caliber sniper rifles, leaving 13 officers dead and nine wounded. Four days later, in the state of Sinaloa, the government was forced to abandon an operation to arrest the son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, after his henchmen assaulted the authorities with both sniper rifles and truck-mounted machine guns.
“We are seeing a full-out criminal insurgency in Mexico right now,” said Robert Bunker, an international security expert who teaches at the Army War College Strategic Studies Institute and has written about the use of .50-caliber rifles by Mexican cartels.
Often, the weapons come from the United States, where civilian sales of high-caliber sniper rifles are unregulated in all but three states.
Oh. So we’re going to do this again?
Okay. It might be just a wee bit interesting if it really meant anything. And if it did, the only thing it would mean for me is that the FedGov needs to close the border. I mean really close it. To all traffic, both human and vehicular.
But that’s not what this is about. The Trace wants you to think that if we just have more gun control we might be able to help the Mexican government, something I couldn’t care less about and isn’t even on my radar screen.
But where to weapons in Mexico really come from?
Ever wonder where Mexican drug cartels are getting all their weapons? After all, since 1972, the most power rifle that you can buy in the country is a .22 caliber weapon. Yet, Mexican drug cartels have grenades, grenade launchers, and fully automatic guns. We have been collecting some quotes on where Mexico gets its guns.
- “Most cartels buy in bulk, and the weapons are coming from places like Nicaragua and other South American countries. Also Asia and some from the Middle East,” a Tijuana-based police authority who requested anonymity explained. “And, another factor is the CNC machines making uppers in clandestine shops in Mexico.”
- “These kinds of guns — the auto versions of these guns — they are not coming from El Paso,” [Ed Head, a firearms instructor in Arizona who spent 24 years with the U.S. Border Patrol] said. “They are coming from other sources. They are brought in from Guatemala. They are brought in from places like China. They are being diverted from the military. But you don’t get these guns from the U.S.”
- Fox News: The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S.
So there’s that. But don’t confuse them with the facts.
On October 29, 2019 at 9:26 pm, newrouter said:
OT may be of interest leo shooting people:
The Autism City: The Shooting at Costco
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelbernick/2019/10/29/the-autism-city-the-shooting-at-costco/#50f5f4db11f0
On October 30, 2019 at 9:42 am, Fred said:
You can’t walk into a gun show and loophole your way into some truck mounted light machine guns and a bulk order of fifties. – stolen from the webz, forgot where.
So the question is, and I must state without equivocation that I don’t know and don’t want to know because I think that bulk orders of .50 cals are covered by the 2A as are machine guns of all types and calibers, and besides I love my God and my people and have no desire to know things that are not mine to know, but the question is; what international arms traffickers are supplying the cartels, and I repeat I don’t know or care, I only know that it ain’t Joe Shmoe the American gun owner? Although exports of arms should be limited strictly to allies in times of DECLARED war.
Oh, and one more thing, I think the war on drugs is stupid so I’ve no need to care about any drug runners either but, there’s also that. The root of this problem temporally, or beyond the obvious that men are sinners, is the War On (some) Drugs. If those Drugs were legal also the cartels would put on suits, fill a sample case, throw it in the back of their Buick and go find customers, and they wouldn’t need machine guns. That’s how it works with the other drugs that aren’t illegal, but what do I know?
Oh, and the writer, of the parts that aren’t machine written, Alex Babylon, er something like that, disqualifies herself by using the term “high-caliber”
On October 30, 2019 at 9:47 am, William Ashbless said:
I do believe quite a few weapons are being trafficked into Mexico.
It makes no sense that the cartels are paying full USA retail and then a bonus to whatever mules that would have to purchase and transport. The cartels have whatever access they need for boatloads of Military Grade (not Military Style like Trace tells you)weapons, either by stealing from their own military or smuggling them in (apparently they are quite adept at mass scale smuggling) from the world over.
Back to my first point: The majority of Mexicans are law-abiding and not associated with the cartels. These weapons from the USA are likely going to small-time criminal enterprises not associated with the cartels or to citizens looking to protect themselves from rampant crime and the cartels.
To ignore that Mexico is a lawless and dangerous failed State is utterly assinine.
On October 30, 2019 at 10:14 am, Fred said:
But it’s worse than that Mr. Ashbless, the US is very well known for playing 2 or 3 sides in a conflict. I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if the CIA makes money from the drugs, DoD makes money from the arms, and State makes money from the “legal” transfer of weapons to our “ally” the Mexico dot gov. War is a racket.
On October 30, 2019 at 11:21 am, Longbow said:
If only North Americans didn’t exercise their rights so freely! Then criminals in Mexico would behave themselves!
On October 30, 2019 at 11:31 am, Roger J said:
Why is The Trace even worried about .50 cal rifles when the cartels get and use real military weaponry like mortars and heavy MGs? (Rhetorical question: I know the answer.) Just recently the Mexican Army had to release El Chapo’s son and make an ignominious retreat, and it wasn’t because the cartels had a few Barretts.