It has become popular these days to blame "weak gun laws" in the U.S. for violence in Mexico. Reading the most recent example of that, I found myself left with a question.

For more than a half-hour around noon, the streets of Rio Bravo turned into a war zone after federal agents tried to stop a van carrying three men with machine guns in full view. The men fired on the officers and then fled to a nearby house to join other members of their organization.

Machine-gun fire ripped the air and rocket-propelled grenades whizzed and exploded, as soldiers and federal agents surrounded the house and the gunmen tried to repel them, witnesses told local reporters. There were unconfirmed reports of two other skirmishes in other parts of the city around the same time.

Where in the U.S., I can't help but wonder, can one find these unregulated machine guns and RPG's? Money is tight for me these days, and health issues make travel difficult, but for that kind of thing, I'll do what it takes to set up a shopping trip.

After the gunfight, the federal authorities raided four houses in Rio Bravo and recovered a large cache of military weapons: 16 sniper rifles, 7 machine guns, one grenade launcher and 12 automatic pistols. Flak jackets, a safe, radios, grenades and ammunition were also seized.

Machine guns, a grenade launcher (and grenades), automatic pistols (or is that NY Times-speak for semi-automatic pistols?)--those things aren't covered by "weak gun laws." Why the NY Times thought it important to list radios and a safe among the arsenal is another question.

Next, we get to the inevitable "blame the 'weak gun laws' in the U.S." part.

It remained unclear where the group purchased the weapons, but officials here have sharply criticized the United States in recent days for doing too little to stop the flow of guns into Mexico from states with weaker gun-control laws, like Texas. They acknowledge, however, that Mexico could do more to search vehicles crossing their border.

Mexico could do more to help secure the border? Color me shocked. That is new.

“There is a lack of control in the north-to-south traffic across the border — we are establishing controls — but whoever sells arms in North American territory should be held responsible for the destination and the use of those arms,� Mr. Patiño said.

Silly me--all this time I was thinking it was the thugs whom we should hold responsible. I must of thought I lived in a society that valued freedom and personal responsibility, or something.

Anyway, if anyone knows where I can find one of those grenade shops in Texas, let me know.

(Source Link)

Weak drug laws is more like it. The horrendous "Drug War" needs to end.

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ANARCHISM, the name given to a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government — harmony in such a society being obtained, not by submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, freely constituted for the sake of production and consumption, as also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilized being.
-Peter Kropotkin