Task force seeks ban on assault weapons

By Spencer S. Hsu


Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, November 13, 2009



A binational task force on U.S.-Mexico border issues will call Friday on the Obama administration and Congress to reinstate an expired ban on assault weapons and for Mexico to overhaul its frontier police and customs agencies to mirror the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Here we go again. The guns they want to ban are not assault weapons. A assault weapon is a sholder fired, select fire arm capable of full automatic fire. The weapons they want to ban are semi auto only look alikes. It does absolutly nothing to deter crime. Criminals do not buy guns at gun shops and gun shows. The new list that they have come up with will ban everything that is semi auto. Including all semi auto shotguns and rifles. Rifles like the Ruger 10/22. one of the most popular target and plinking rifles made. It will get rid of those pesky Remington 1100s and other shotguns used in sport shooting and hunting. Their ultimate goal is total disarmament of the people. This is where they start because "assault" weapons are scary.



The recommendations are among a broad set of security, trade, development and environmental proposals that come as President Obama and his Mexicans counterpart, Felipe Calderón, move to deepen engagement on issues including economic recovery, climate change, illegal immigration and narcotics trafficking.
Robert C. Bonner, the U.S. co-chairman of the private task force, which included several former senior government officials from both countries, said the changes could be included in a follow-up to the Merida initiative, a $1.4 billion three-year commitment of U.S. aid to support Mexico's crackdown on drug cartels that ends next year.
The proposals "will transform management of the border from a source of contention and frustration into a model of cooperation," states a report by the Los Angeles-based Pacific Council on International Policy and the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations titled, "Rethinking the U.S.-Mexico Border." The 30-member task force blamed lack of collaboration for violence, billions of dollars in lost economic opportunities and a public perception of a "broken" system.





The system is broken. The first thing we need to do is seal up the border. Step 2 should be round up all the illegals and ship them home. Where ever home is. And it's not just Mexicans. There are illegals here from all over the world. Including from terrorist harboring nations. And what about the billions od dollars sent across the border that illegals are sending home?



The study comes as Mexico's struggle to combat narco-traffickers and public corruption from the multibillion-dollar North American drug trade has forged a tighter relationship between the neighbors. In reaction, policy analysts and think tanks, most recently the School of the Northern Border in Mexico and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, have developed border development proposals.
Skeptics say U.S. attention to its troubled partner is outpaced by what it spends to combat drugs in places such as Colombia or Afghanistan, while the southbound flow of weapons into Mexico -- where private gun ownership is illegal -- has been a flashpoint as Mexico's death toll from drug-related violence has topped 15,000.

In Mexico City in April, Obama pledged to push the Senate to ratify an inter-American arms-trafficking treaty but backed away from a campaign promise to reinstate a ban on assault weapons that Congress let expire in 2004. Obama said that it would be too difficult politically to enact new gun legislation soon and that enforcing existing measures would have a more immediate effect.



Maybe he knows trying to ban any kind of gun would be political suicide. Look what happened the last time. Congress enacted the so called asault weapons ban and the very next election, lost control of both houses. Want to see a replay? Gun owners are sick and tired of being vilified everytime some other coountry can't control their own crime.



Mexican officials want a ban, saying that 90 percent of guns seized in drug crimes in Mexico and submitted for tracing to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives originate in the United States, including most assault rifles.


This is a lie that has been disproven time after time. The number is 17%. Most of their weapons come from overseas and are smuggled in. And then there are all of their nice American made M16s. The ones the desserters from the military take with them when they go. The ones sold to the Mexican government by the biggest arms dealer in the world, the United States. And where are they getting all of those rocket launcers, grenades and land mines. I've never seen those items for sale in a gun shop.


Bonner, who led U.S. drug enforcement and customs agencies under Republican administrations from 1990 to 1993 and from 2002 to 2005, said the task force sought to identify bold steps for each side. Bonner took over the panel from Alan D. Bersin, whom Obama has nominated to lead U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Task force co-chairman Andres Rozental, former deputy foreign minister of Mexico, said Mexico should realign and strengthen 16 agencies that share border responsibilities to combat corruption and improve coordination with the DHS, as Canada did after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Mexico has taken some steps, including hiring 1,400 new customs agents.



And just how long will it be before they are as corrupt as the rest of the Mexican government? They have one of the most corrupt governments in the world.


Mexico is the third-largest U.S. trading partner and the No. 2 destination for U.S. exports, he noted. The panel recommended adding private border crossings that collect tolls and prioritizing jointly planned improvements based on economic benefit.
If the United States legalizes most of its illegal immigrants and allows for a flexible flow of legal workers, Mexico should stop illegal immigration from its side of the border, the panel said.

And there it is, AMNESTY. We are supposed to give 20 million criminals amnesty because the President of Mexico thinks it would be good. Plus they want to let more in. These people have a lot of nerve.