5 ms·

Texas Is Arming Mexico's Gunmen

34 points by ivanleoncz 2y ago

klyrs 2y ago
Yikes, Mexico should build a wall and make Texas pay for it
- ivanleoncz 2y ago
  It's funny but, it kind of makes sense... For sure, gun control is something much needed on the US, for the sake of both nations, for the sake of Central America too.
stackskipton 2y ago
Makes sense, Texas has lax gun laws, plenty of gun stores and large border crossings where chances of random search are much lower. However, Texas politics means gun laws in Texas are unlikely to change soon.
- 0xy 2y ago
  Sounds like total nonsense, I can walk into a California gun store and buy the same guns they're selling in Texas, not to mention it also borders Mexico [1] Operation Fast and Furious, the operation that saw the US government arm the cartels, was based out of Arizona. [1] https://www.npr.org/2023/10/19/1207329132/a-federal-judge-rules-again-that-californias-assault-weapons-ban-is-unconstituti https://www.npr.org/2023/10/19/1207329132/a-federal-judge-ru...
  - stackskipton 2y ago
    In good faith, I'm going to assume you are just ignorant of California gun laws. California requires Firearm Safety Certificate [1], Texas does not. California requires 10 day waiting period [1], Texas does not. California requires Safe Handling Demonstration to be done by purchasing store [1], Texas does not. California does not allow certain handguns to be sold in California [1][2], Texas allows all handguns to be sold. California has one handgun, one semiautomatic centerfire rifle per 30 days purchase restriction, [1] Texas does not. California has ammo purchase checks [1], Texas does not. California has assault weapon ban, [3], Texas does not. [1] https://www.oag.ca.gov/ogvp/overview-firearm-law https://www.oag.ca.gov/ogvp/overview-firearm-law [2] https://oag.ca.gov/firearms/certified-handguns/search https://oag.ca.gov/firearms/certified-handguns/search [3] https://oag.ca.gov/ogvp/fed-assault-weapons-ban https://oag.ca.gov/ogvp/fed-assault-weapons-ban Now we can talk about Fast and Furious and how dumb it was (So dumb) but acting like Texas and California are same when it comes to gun laws is just wrong.
- readthenotes1 2y ago
  Makes sense, the border between Texas and Mexico is a river that can be waded in many places.
2four2 2y ago
Arm foreign crime syndicates and then scare your citizens about the dangerous foreigners. Solid strategy.
- halJordan 2y ago
  Say whatever else you will, but at least they read 1984 and watched V for Vendetta.
ivanleoncz 2y ago
The dataset is pretty interesting, although scary. I'll end up creating a notebook then using some pandas over it. Something to study, indeed.
smsm42 2y ago
Somehow no mention of Operation Fast and Furious, where the US government forced US gun sellers to sell guns to straw purchasers with the explicit purpose to deliver those guns to Mexican cartels? US government then lied to the Congress about it and invoked "executive privilege" to hide the details of this operation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal
- BLKNSLVR 2y ago
  Critically, the GPS battery life was only a few days and the GPS weapon "tracker" signal was routinely lost especially in car trunks Sounds like what a high schooler would do when trying to stalk someone. Or, alternatively, what a corrupt Attorney's office would do if they were working for Mexican Drug Cartels who needed weapons.
- pjmlp 2y ago
  An then everyone pretends it is so much better than other governments.
  - trilbyglens 2y ago
    Ha not sure who pretends this...
    - pjmlp 2y ago
      Common in HN threads about how three letter agencies follow the law like everyone else, only other countries track down their citizens, and other related stuff only naive folks can believe.
harmmonica 2y ago
I don’t spend too much time thinking about guns so this is going to sound pretty ignorant, but reading this article is the first time I realized the terrible feedback loop at play here: the more guns sold the more crimes committed with guns the more people justify wanting/having guns to protect themselves from crime. Duh, says anyone who reads that. But, with recent US Supreme Court decisions further expanding gun rights, is there any actual hope of stemming gun violence or is that even more of a pipe dream than it has been for the past x decades? Loaded (ahem) topic, I realize, but genuinely curious. Doesn’t seem like there’s any way to put the genie back in the bottle especially when SCOTUS seems to want to keep rubbing the bottle.
- wmf 2y ago
  Progressives would tell you that gun violence is mostly caused by poverty, the drug war, and various institutional failures (e.g. El Salvador before the gang crackdown) and thus if you reduce these problems you'll also reduce violence.
  - harmmonica 2y ago
    Not sure whether to feel good or bad about your list because of how intractable those things seem to be, but at this point limiting access to guns is probably even more unlikely so it seems like the focus needs to be on those root causes and not on the guns.
    - trilbyglens 2y ago
      There are many countries with high levels of gun ownership but dar far lower violent crime rates. The unifying attribute of those is that they lack poverty and desperation on the scale that were so masterful at creating in America.
- therein 2y ago
  If you take away guns from people who are honest and honorable and just want to protect their own by setting stones in legal avenues to acquire them, you create an environment in which only the criminals have guns.
marc_abonce 2y ago
The author works for an NGO called Stop US Arms to Mexico which is lobbying for several policy changes in the US to "reduce US legal gun sales to Mexico to pre-Merida Initiative (2007) levels". This is the first time I hear about them and I'm not an expert on US law, so I don't know how effective would their proposals be, but at least discussing possible improvements is better than the defeatism that unfortunately dominates in both countries nowadays. https://stopusarmstomexico.org/advocacy-policy-solutions/ https://stopusarmstomexico.org/advocacy-policy-solutions/
dangreacharound 2y ago
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34 points by ivanleoncz 2y ago

klyrs 2y ago

Yikes, Mexico should build a wall and make Texas pay for it

ivanleoncz 2y ago
It's funny but, it kind of makes sense... For sure, gun control is something much needed on the US, for the sake of both nations, for the sake of Central America too.

stackskipton 2y ago

Makes sense, Texas has lax gun laws, plenty of gun stores and large border crossings where chances of random search are much lower. However, Texas politics means gun laws in Texas are unlikely to change soon.

0xy 2y ago
Sounds like total nonsense, I can walk into a California gun store and buy the same guns they're selling in Texas, not to mention it also borders Mexico [1] Operation Fast and Furious, the operation that saw the US government arm the cartels, was based out of Arizona. [1] https://www.npr.org/2023/10/19/1207329132/a-federal-judge-rules-again-that-californias-assault-weapons-ban-is-unconstituti https://www.npr.org/2023/10/19/1207329132/a-federal-judge-ru...
- stackskipton 2y ago
  In good faith, I'm going to assume you are just ignorant of California gun laws. California requires Firearm Safety Certificate [1], Texas does not. California requires 10 day waiting period [1], Texas does not. California requires Safe Handling Demonstration to be done by purchasing store [1], Texas does not. California does not allow certain handguns to be sold in California [1][2], Texas allows all handguns to be sold. California has one handgun, one semiautomatic centerfire rifle per 30 days purchase restriction, [1] Texas does not. California has ammo purchase checks [1], Texas does not. California has assault weapon ban, [3], Texas does not. [1] https://www.oag.ca.gov/ogvp/overview-firearm-law https://www.oag.ca.gov/ogvp/overview-firearm-law [2] https://oag.ca.gov/firearms/certified-handguns/search https://oag.ca.gov/firearms/certified-handguns/search [3] https://oag.ca.gov/ogvp/fed-assault-weapons-ban https://oag.ca.gov/ogvp/fed-assault-weapons-ban Now we can talk about Fast and Furious and how dumb it was (So dumb) but acting like Texas and California are same when it comes to gun laws is just wrong.
readthenotes1 2y ago
Makes sense, the border between Texas and Mexico is a river that can be waded in many places.

2four2 2y ago

Arm foreign crime syndicates and then scare your citizens about the dangerous foreigners. Solid strategy.

halJordan 2y ago
Say whatever else you will, but at least they read 1984 and watched V for Vendetta.

ivanleoncz 2y ago

The dataset is pretty interesting, although scary. I'll end up creating a notebook then using some pandas over it. Something to study, indeed.

smsm42 2y ago

Somehow no mention of Operation Fast and Furious, where the US government forced US gun sellers to sell guns to straw purchasers with the explicit purpose to deliver those guns to Mexican cartels? US government then lied to the Congress about it and invoked "executive privilege" to hide the details of this operation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal

BLKNSLVR 2y ago
Critically, the GPS battery life was only a few days and the GPS weapon "tracker" signal was routinely lost especially in car trunks Sounds like what a high schooler would do when trying to stalk someone. Or, alternatively, what a corrupt Attorney's office would do if they were working for Mexican Drug Cartels who needed weapons.
pjmlp 2y ago
An then everyone pretends it is so much better than other governments.
- trilbyglens 2y ago
  Ha not sure who pretends this...
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    Common in HN threads about how three letter agencies follow the law like everyone else, only other countries track down their citizens, and other related stuff only naive folks can believe.

harmmonica 2y ago

I don’t spend too much time thinking about guns so this is going to sound pretty ignorant, but reading this article is the first time I realized the terrible feedback loop at play here: the more guns sold the more crimes committed with guns the more people justify wanting/having guns to protect themselves from crime. Duh, says anyone who reads that. But, with recent US Supreme Court decisions further expanding gun rights, is there any actual hope of stemming gun violence or is that even more of a pipe dream than it has been for the past x decades? Loaded (ahem) topic, I realize, but genuinely curious. Doesn’t seem like there’s any way to put the genie back in the bottle especially when SCOTUS seems to want to keep rubbing the bottle.

wmf 2y ago
Progressives would tell you that gun violence is mostly caused by poverty, the drug war, and various institutional failures (e.g. El Salvador before the gang crackdown) and thus if you reduce these problems you'll also reduce violence.
- harmmonica 2y ago
  Not sure whether to feel good or bad about your list because of how intractable those things seem to be, but at this point limiting access to guns is probably even more unlikely so it seems like the focus needs to be on those root causes and not on the guns.
  - trilbyglens 2y ago
    There are many countries with high levels of gun ownership but dar far lower violent crime rates. The unifying attribute of those is that they lack poverty and desperation on the scale that were so masterful at creating in America.
therein 2y ago
If you take away guns from people who are honest and honorable and just want to protect their own by setting stones in legal avenues to acquire them, you create an environment in which only the criminals have guns.

marc_abonce 2y ago

The author works for an NGO called Stop US Arms to Mexico which is lobbying for several policy changes in the US to "reduce US legal gun sales to Mexico to pre-Merida Initiative (2007) levels". This is the first time I hear about them and I'm not an expert on US law, so I don't know how effective would their proposals be, but at least discussing possible improvements is better than the defeatism that unfortunately dominates in both countries nowadays. https://stopusarmstomexico.org/advocacy-policy-solutions/ https://stopusarmstomexico.org/advocacy-policy-solutions/

dangreacharound 2y ago

[dead]