Fox Hosts NRA's LaPierre To Push Gun Trafficking Myth

[jpak]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201108080040

On Friday, America's Newsroom hosted National Rifle Association (NRA) executive vice president Wayne LaPierre to discuss an NRA lawsuit that challenges a rule requiring gun dealers along the southwest border to report purchases of two or more rifles, like AK-47s. LaPierre only spoke briefly about the lawsuit and instead used most his appearance to push the myth that America is not a significant source of firearms for Mexican cartels.

The facts on U.S. guns going to Mexico are straight forward. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (ATF) has seized more 10,000 firearms and more then 1.1. million rounds of ammunition headed to the southwest border since 2006. On the Mexican side of the border, 20,504 or 70 percent of the total firearms seized and submitted for tracing in the last two years were from the United States. Undeterred by the facts LaPierre continues to push the idea that U.S. guns play a minimal role in arming Mexican cartels.

LaPierre began by suggesting that State Department cables, released by Wikileaks, support his theory:

LAPIERRE: Everyone now admits the drug cartels in Mexico are getting their guns from Russia, China, defections from the Mexican army, the international black market and largely through Central America. The Wikileaks cables from our own State Department prove that. They went to Congress

ALISYN CAMEROTA: So are you saying that no semiautomatic guns from the U.S. and from the southwest border are falling into the hands of Mexican criminals?

<more>

more LaPierre lies and suckage

yup

[Drale]

1. This is Fox News we are talking about

They lie, they cheat, they are pure evil.

[gejohnston]

3. and Media Matters

just exposed themselves as politically biased and hypocritical. Like or not, is Fox actually is right on this one. Media Matters doubts that Wikileaks cables backs them up. McClatchy posted the cables on their website. Anyone who appoints themselves as "watchdog" should hold themselves to a higher standard.

[rl6214]

9. This is Media Matters we are talking about

They lie, they cheat, they spin things the way they want them, they are one of the most slanted, partisan organizations there is.

[iverglas]

13. snork

How ... odd and unexpected ... to see such comment in this forum.

:rofl:

[gejohnston]

15. On this issue, they are at

very least being partisan and lazy if not dishonest.

[iverglas]

16. yessss

That's always the way with the non-right-wing, isn't it?

[gejohnston]

17. dishonesty is always wrong

I don't give a shit which side does it or why. In post two, I point out third party sources, including a news agency that put the cables on line, back up Wayne's view and debunks MM's. There there was the "Al Qaida says you can buy a machine gun at Wal Mart, so it must be true" a few months back. The quality that Crooks and Liars' reporting on that would not make a high school newspaper.

[gejohnston]

2. my comment to media matters

Hate to burst your bubble, but the NRA is correct on this one. Afraid your reporting on this one is on the unprofessional level of Fox. If you are going to call out Fox for being biased and being propaganda, you have no business being hypocritical when it serves your purpose. McClatchy published the Wikileaks cables. Stratfor.com and Latin American media has done excellent work on this issue. To quote Stratfor:

"According to the GAO report, some 30,000 firearms were seized from criminals by Mexican authorities in 2008. Of these 30,000 firearms, information pertaining to 7,200 of them (24 percent) was submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for tracing. Of these 7,200 guns, only about 4,000 could be traced by the ATF, and of these 4,000, some 3,480 (87 percent) were shown to have come from the United States."

In other words, if it did not have US markings, the ATF did not get it. The Mexican Govt only gave a small number of weapons for the ATF to trace. Few come from US.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/04/21/112595/cable-lax-honduran-controls-on.html
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/04/21/112594/cable-guatemalan-military-selling.html
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110209-mexicos-gun-supply-and-90-percent-myth
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=390473&CategoryId=14091

[krispos42]

4. Yeah, because only gun-controller lies are right!

Now I'm off to polish my semi-automatic machine gun and my assault clips before I throw my lawn waste into the magical gun-show loophole for composting.

[Katya Mullethov]

6. Who did you find to have the most plausible story ?

Vicente Zambada-Niebla or Bill Newell ?

[krispos42]

8. Neither of those people were mentioned in the article...

...so I can offer no opinion either way.

[spin]

5. The scandal keeps growing bigger and bigger, day by day ...

All I will say is that the ATF Fast and Furious operation might be just the tip of an iceberg.

I seriously hope that I am wrong.

Time may tell.

[Hangingon]

7. This stopped being a myth sometime ago,

[drpepper67]

12. Some people get it, some don't. Like algebra.

[GreenStormCloud]

10. The Mexican cartels are getting their full-auto stuff from other countries.

You can't go to a gun store/show and buy machine guns. Further, the cartels can smuggle in a real full-auto AK-47 for a fraction the price that they can buy a U.S. made semi-auto clone of an AK-47.

The Mexican gov't does not sumbit to the U.S. for tracing all the guns that they capture. There is no point in submitting to us a gun that is obviously made in North Korea, or some other country.

[ileus]

11. submitted for tracing.....always the same lie.

[SteveM]

14. Uh, isn't this stuff kinda old and discredited? nt