House Committee Debates Guns Control and Mexican Border

[ericire12]

http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/05/07/House_Committee_Debates_Guns_and_Mexican_Border.htm

WASHINGTON (CN) - The House Judiciary Committee heard proposals Wednesday for increased gun control inside the United States as a means of cutting down on drug violence along both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. "How many officers have to be killed before we impose more gun regulation?" asked Texas Representative Jackson Lee, a Democrat.
     Democrats have called on better gun control in the U.S., which they say supplies 90 percent of the firearms seized in Mexico, contributing significantly to the violence. Mexico itself enforces strict gun laws where residents are limited to non-military, low-caliber guns with long prison terms for gun violation.
     Republicans on the Judiciary Committee argued against gun control in the United States, arguing that Mexican officials need to do more to stop the smuggling of guns into Mexico.
     In the last two years, Mexican President Felipe has conducted a campaign to reduce the power of the Mexican which has been accompanied by a surge in the number of violent deaths related to drug smuggling. Anthony Placido, a representative of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said that campaign has had a measurable effect on the cartels.
     Drug lords are fighting for valuable drug corridors, said Placido. Assistant Deputy Attorney General Stuart Nash testified that the price of a gram of cocaine has doubled, since the Mexican crackdown, even as purity of the product fell 35 percent.
     Committee member noted that the violence has spread deep into the United States. The Tucson Citizen reported, for example, that in as far inside the border as Birmingham, Alaska, 5 men were found dead with their throats slit. They had been electrically shocked before they were killed for a drug debt estimated at $400,000.
     The United States has since dispatched hundreds of extra agents along the border and is searching all cargo trains for guns that are destined for Mexico, something it hadn't done before, said Acting Deputy Director William Hoover of the Department of Justice.
     He told the committee that a high percentage of the arms flowing into Mexico come from Houston South Texas.
     Texas Republic Lamar Smith commented, "Regrettably, some are using the violence along the border as justification for stricter gun laws."
     Representative Ted Poe, also a Texas Republican, took a similar line. "It seems like Mexico has a responsibility in keeping guns from coming in," he said, "like we do with drugs."