ABC News Falsely Claims “Three in Four” Guns in Mexico Comes From the United States

ABC News Falsely Claims “Three in Four” Guns in Mexico Comes From the United States
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg claims his data it proves the point…LOL

FirearmsTruth.com
FirearmsTruth.com

Michigan –-(Ammoland.com)- More than a year and a half ago numbers circulated that 80 percent of the guns used by Mexican cartels came from the United States, but then the numbers were examined more closely.

That 80 percent number was in fact only counting guns that were actually sent back to the United States for confirmation. In other words, not all the guns confiscated in Mexico even were actually submitted to American authorities, yet the 80 percent number stuck, and it was reported over and over again.

We note this because now ABC News is now reporting that “as many as three out of four guns used in crimes in Mexico can be traced to guns stores just across the border in the U.S.” This sounds all too familiar.

So let’s take a close look at what ABC News says, and more importantly what they don’t say.

First, the news organization notes: “the study, based on Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) data and prepared by the advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, shows that three out of four guns used in crimes in Mexico and submitted for tracing were sold in the four U.S. states that border Mexico.”

What they said, “and submitted for tracing,” meaning we’re back to the situation a year and a half ago, or in other words this is pretty much a revised ”80 percent of guns” statistic.

What they didn’t say was how many guns are not submitted for tracing, which could be substantially higher than the number of guns seized. The news story noted some “19,000 guns used in crime in Mexico were traced to an original sale at a US gun dealer.” That’s amazing, but 19,000 for a border war this big sounds like a small number of firearms. Of course, there is no mention of the TOTAL number of guns seized in Mexico.

What they also said was that this study was based on ATF data BUT “prepared by the advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns.” Do we really believe that this group would want to say “less than 20 percent of seized guns in Mexico are even sent to the United States for tracing?” The story fails to note that this was hardly the most scientific of studies either.

ABC News adds, “…the bulk of the guns came from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.” The story later continues by stating, “The numbers showed that Arizona, Texas and New Mexico had an export rate 169 percent greater than any other states, which the authors suggest may be due in part to less-restrictive gun laws in those states.”

So why wasn’t California mentioned in the second quote, if that was the other border state where “the bulk of the guns came from,” except that it doesn’t fit so nicely with the study’s finding, or it doesn’t fit with the tone the authors at ABC News intended. In other words, California has fairly strict gun control laws, so it is noted for being a border state when it is convenient to make a point, but disregarded when another point needs to be made.

The fact that guns are coming from border states shouldn’t even be a surprise. Is it really the respective states’ laws on gun ownership, or the fact that it is easier to drive to Texas than say New Hampshire? There are probably more illegal immigrants in the border states, and probably more illegal drugs from Mexico in those four states than say Alaska or Maine! Why is promixity mentioned when it fits, but disregarded other times? The answer: biased reporting.

Finally, we have to question why the primarily source for the story was the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and yet the only “color” commentary for the piece actually comes from the groups founder, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was quoted as saying, “[It] again proves it is too easy for criminals and traffickers to get guns.”

Citing data and then having the author of the data saying, “it proves the point,” hardly proves the point. This story thus lacks any credible counterpoint on the above statement or the study. Talk about a stacked deck and a highly biased story!

Peter Suciu is executive editor of FirearmsTruth.com, a website that tracks and monitors media bias against guns and our Second Amendment rights. Visit: FirearmsTruth.com

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Henry George

This bogus statistic keeps coming up again and again. This morning, it popped up on a local NBC news broadcast:

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/Targeting_Ill...