Our NRA-defending commenters

by David Safier

A few days ago, I wrote a post, Confused on the concept. The topic: The NRA and its legislative defenders are furious that Operation Fast and Furious lost track of about 2,000 guns going into Mexico in a sting operation, but they are apoplectic about the idea that gun sellers have to let the authorities know when anyone buys more than one high-powered rifle over a five day period. See, the thing is, those 2,000 guns are a drop in the bucket compared to the number of guns originating in the U.S. smuggled across the border. So if 2,000 guns making their way to Mexico is bad, isn't the steady illegal traffic worse? Shouldn't we try to contain it?

A few vigilant defenders of all things NRA located the post and commented on it. Their main argument was, most of the guns in Mexico come from South America, not the U.S. That's one of the standard defenses of lax gun laws these days.

But though it sounds reasonable, it's just not true. Here are the stats:

In response to a query from Feinstein, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reported last month that of the 29,284 weapons recovered in Mexico and submitted for tracing in 2009 and 2010, a total of 20,504 – 70 percent – were "United States-sourced firearms." Virtually all of the remaining weapons were not traceable because insufficient information was submitted.

Got that? About 70% were directly traceable to the U.S., and most of the others couldn't be traced.