Thursday, February 26, 2009
Delivering the AKs
Nice work James McKinley! The Times delivers a solid dispatch on the gun trade in Arizona, which helps supply the Mexican drug gangs. One guy featured in the article sold more than 515 AK-47s to straw buyers representing the Beltrán Leyvas. What's somewhat unsettling is that there appears to be nothing inherently illegal about selling 500 AKs in a couple of years in Arizona; what made the dealer a target for authorities were his efforts to circumvent regulations and his talking openly about how the guns were going to be used by smugglers.
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2 comments:
Yeah I thought the it's-kosher-to-sell-AKs part of the story merited much more explanation as well. I thought maintaining the assault rifle ban was like the only gun control win during the Bush years?
I imagine all those AKs would have been illegal before the ban expired in 2004. It is interesting (and largely unnoticed) that the explosion of Mexican violence occurred in the years just after the 10-year-ban went away. Colombia shows that drug dealers dont need the US to find weapons, but it does make you wonder if the level of violence would be lower had the ban not expired. Although, if I remember right, all you needed was some slight doctoring and an machine gun could be refitted to legality even with the prohibition.
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