With anti-Constitutionalists politicians all calling for more infringement on our Constitutional Rights of gun ownership, one has to ask if they understand the real threat pertaining to guns?
Do liberals understand where the threat is coming from?
Here's a hint: its not from law abiding American citizens or legally obtained firearms.
In 2010, the United States imported 3.9 million guns, some 16 times more than we exported to other countries.
Those imported guns accounted for 43% of new guns legally available to Americans for sale that year.
Granted other countries sell guns in America legally, but how about the illegal gun trade?
While those figure are correct, we have no way of really knowing how many guns and explosives are coming into the United States from other countries illegally. Yes, illegally.
We hear a lot about guns being smuggled into Mexico these days, but nothing about what is being smuggled into the United States!
The threat is not a gun bought legally in the United States, the real threat, the correct target of criminal activity, should be the arms and explosives coming into the United States by way of the U.S./Mexican Border and the Port of Long Beach which is being operated by China using a front company for the Communist Chinese Army.
There is a joke these days that goes: "What is the modern term for Illegal Aliens?"
Answer: "Undocumented Democrats!"
What does Illegal Aliens have to do with illegal guns coming into the United States? The issues of Illegal Guns and Illegal Aliens, or Border Security, intertwine.
While the joke is funny to Conservatives, sadly it seems to be more fitting than funny!
The reason is that Democrats appear more concerned about having Illegal Aliens fill out Voter Registration cards than they are with stopping illegal entry. Democrats see the border as secure contrary to experts who say the opposite.
Their apathetic attitude toward stopping illegal entry demonstrates their total lack of concern for security along our Southern border. Their apathy is life threatening.
While much is written and talked about regarding the U.S. role in feeding Mexico's enormous gun violence across the border, not much is said about illicit arms and explosive trafficking coming in the United States.
The focus by the liberal news media is to make America look like the culprit to Mexico's problems when we are not.
We all know about stolen guns that are sold illegally, but how about guns that aren't stolen and that the general public can't purchase legally such as fully-automatic weapons - yet are showing up on the streets of American cities?
Guns Not Available for Civilian Purchase in the United States are found in the United States and in Mexico.
The argument that semi-automatic weapons, which can be bought legally by Americans, are the guns of choice by Mexican cartels and gangs in American cities is laughable.
Small semi-automatic arms are one thing, but true military grade fully-automatic weapons and unattainable explosives are another story all together.
Weapons encountered along the U.S./ Mexico border are military-grade ordnance and not generally available for sale in the United States.
These include hand grenades, 40 mm grenades, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), automatic assault rifles and main battle rifles, and even light machine guns.
These weapons are fairly difficult to obtain, as well as very expensive to buy, in the United States, especially in the large numbers in which the cartels are employing them.
They are also dangerous to obtain in the United States due to heavy law enforcement scrutiny.
Therefore, most of the military ordnance used by the Mexican cartels comes from other outside sources, such as the international arms market - increasingly from the Chinese military via the same networks that furnish precursor chemicals for narcotics manufacturing - or from corrupt elements in the Mexican military or even deserters who take their weapons with them.
Besides, items such as South Korean fragmentation grenades and RPG-7s, often used by the cartels, simply are not in the U.S. arsenal - and certainly not available to U.S. citizens.
For Mexico, this means that these weapons are not coming from the United States - but instead other sources overseas.
For the United States, these weapons coming into our country illegally is a threat that our Federal Government under the guidance of the Obama administration is ignoring.
The threat to the United States is coming from our Southern border and our ports, both which is not being secured properly.
In recent years the drug cartels, especially their enforcer groups such as Los Zetas, Gente Nueva and La Linea, have been increasingly using military weaponry instead of sporting arms.
A close examination of the arms seized from the enforcer groups and their training camps clearly demonstrates this trend toward military ordnance, including many weapons not readily available in the United States.
Some of these seizures have included M60 machine guns and hundreds of 40 mm grenades obtained from the military arsenals of countries like Guatemala.
But Guatemala is not the only source of such weapons. Latin America is awash in weapons that were shipped there over the past several decades to supply the various insurgencies and counterinsurgencies in the region.
When these military-grade weapons are combined with the rampant corruption in the region, they quickly find their way into the black arms market.
For Mexico, the cartels have supply-chain contacts that help move narcotics to Mexico from South America, and they are able to use this same network to obtain guns from the black market in South and Central America and then smuggle them into Mexico.
While there are many weapons in this category that were manufactured in the United States, the overwhelming majority of the U.S.-manufactured weapons of this type encountered in Mexico - like LAW rockets and M60 machine guns - go into Mexico from other third party countries. Not the United States.
These weapons do not come from the United States, but many end up in cities in the United States from Mexico.
Commercially available to American citizens versus only Military issue? Yes there is an overlap between classes of weapons.
For example, the FN Five-Seven pistol is available for commercial purchase in the United States, but the 5.7x28 armor-piercing ammunition for the pistol favored by the cartels is not. It is restricted to military use only.
However, some of the special operations forces units in the Mexican military are issued the Five-Seven as well as the FN P90 personal defense weapon, which also shoots the 5.7x28 round, and the cartels are obtaining some of these weapons.
And yes, both the arms and the armor-piercing ammunition from the Mexican military are not coming from the United States.
For us, we are seeing arms and explosives being smuggled into the United States which are not found for sale to the American public.
From Mexico, fully automatic AK-47s and M16s manufactured and purchased elsewhere, are being smuggled into the United States.
As noted above, Communist China has become an increasingly common source for military weapons like grenades and fully automatic assault rifles in recent years.
The last case of arms smuggling into the United States was not in 1996, but smuggling into America doesn't make the news as much as smuggling into Mexico does - after all, liberals see Americans as the root of all evil.
June 5, 1996
China Arms Case Draws Indictment
A federal grand jury returned a 30-count indictment, charging 14 people and a Georgia company in a scheme to smuggle automatic weapons into the United States from China, U.S. officials said.
The indictment formalizes charges made last month when federal agents smashed an arms smuggling ring that they said involved two government-run Chinese munitions firms.
Seven of the people charged have been arrested, and seven others, including officials of China's state-controlled munitions firm China Northern Industrial Corp., remain at large.
The indictment also charged Dynasty Holding Co. of Georgia with money laundering.
May 23, 1996
U.S. Seizes 2,000 Assault Arms as Smuggling by China Is Probed
Investigation: Federal agents say arrests involve firms linked to Peking's military, leadership. They allegedly brought record number of automatic weapons into U.S.
WASHINGTON — Federal authorities began making a series of arrests in an intensive investigation of China's two main state-controlled arms exporting companies for allegedly smuggling automatic assault weapons into this country, according to law enforcement officials.
The companies under investigation, called Poly Technologies and Norinco, lie at the heart of China's military-industrial complex.
Poly Technologies, in particular, operates directly under the Chinese People's Liberation Army and has been run by the children of several of China's top leaders, including the son-in-law of China's ailing patriarch Deng Xiaoping.
About 2,000 fully automatic AK-47-type weapons from China were brought into the United States through the port of Oakland last March 18, according to authorities.
The Chinese arms dealers apparently believed that the undercover agents were mid-level American arms smugglers willing to pay up to 400% markups for the outlawed weapons.
The Chinese dealers believed that the illegal weapons were going to be used by violent American gangs, the officials said.
August 10, 1989
200 AK-47 Rifles Seized; 4 Alleged Smugglers Arrested
In what authorities called one of the largest weapons seizures in county history, nearly 200 semiautomatic rifles and 80,000 rounds of ammunition were seized by federal agents in Irvine and San Diego, culminating an undercover investigation of a weapons-smuggling ring, it was announced Wednesday.
The two-week investigation by Operation Alliance, a task force composed of members from the U.S. Customs Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and various state and local agencies, ended with the arrests of four men who delivered 98 Chinese-made AK-47 assault weapons, 2 handguns and about 8,000 rounds of ammunition to a customs agent posing as buyers.
An additional 93 AK-47 rifles and 70,000 rounds of ammunition belonging to the four men were seized in Irvine, and will be used as evidence against the alleged exporters, agents said.
The assault rifles had a street value of $285,000, they said.
The Real Threat From Guns In The United States Is In The Streets And They Are Weapons The Average Citizen Can't Buy
No, it wasn't that long ago when three Chinese officials were arrested in 1996 in a U.S. Justice Department sting in which two undercover agents paid $700,000 for a shipping container filled with 2,000 Chinese-made AK-47s.
They weren't headed for Mexico. They were headed for street gangs in cities right here in the United States.
It was the largest seizure of illegal automatic weapons in U.S. history. The three officials had ties with China's two main arms firms: China North Industries Corp. (Norinco) and Poly Technologies.
The Chinese-made MAK-90, an AK-47-like rifles that can be equipped with a silencer and grenade launcher, was illegally imported to the United States.
While Democrat's ignore the nation's security needs on the border, they increase put America is harms way of terrorist threat of illegal arms and explosives coming across the border from Mexico, Americans should ask While do not seem to worry the Obama administration or Democrats who want an Open Border with Mexico.
Mexico has very strict gun-ownership laws. While that country’s Constitution allows for citizens to keep and bear arms, the conditions it places on this ownership through amendments to the constitution are much more limiting.
Fact is, only one entity is permitted to sell weapons in Mexico - and it is run by the Mexican Army. For Mexico, such a situation opens up all sorts of doors to bringing in guns from foreign countries.
Communist China and Eastern European nations, who produce arms with the support of their governments, traffic arms into Mexico and the United States with regularity.
It is estimated that there are over 700 million small arms in circulation world wide, and that over 1,135 companies based in more than 98 different countries manufacture small arms as well as their various components and ammunition.
Historically a highly efficient, well organized, and profitable business, gun trafficking into the United States and elsewhere moves guns from legal manufactures through corrupt government safeguards such as corrupt Border Patrol Agents so that criminals who can’t buy guns legally get them.
So where are these guns and explosives going?
Gangs continue to commit criminal activity, recruit new members in urban, suburban, and rural regions across the United States, and develop criminal associations that expand their influence over criminal enterprises, particularly street-level drug sales.
Thanks to a pathetic response to security problems on the border, there has been an overall increase in gang membership, and the expansion of criminal street gangs’ control of street-level drug sales and collaboration with rival gangs and other criminal organizations.
Gangs are expanding, evolving and posing an increasing threat to U.S. communities nationwide.
Many gangs are sophisticated criminal networks with members who are violent, distribute wholesale quantities of drugs, and develop and maintain close working relationships with members and associates of transnational criminal/drug trafficking organizations.
While the Federal government is overly concerned with taking away guns from women rape victims and defenseless families, gangs are becoming more violent.
Gangs are responsible for 48% or more of all violent crime in most jurisdictions and up to 90% in several others, according to NGIC analysis.
While engaging in less typical and lower-risk crime, such as prostitution and white-collar crime. Gangs are more adaptable, organized, sophisticated, and opportunistic, exploiting new and advanced technology as a means to recruit, communicate discretely, target their rivals, and perpetuate their criminal activity.
The National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) prepared the 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment (NGTA) to examine emerging gang trends and threats posed by criminal gangs to communities throughout the United States.
So Let's Really Talk About Gun Violence!
Based on state, local, and federal law enforcement reporting, the NGIC concludes that:
■ There are approximately 1.4 million active street, prison, and outlaw motorcycle gang members comprising more than 33,000 gangs in the United States.
■ Gangs are responsible for an average of 48% of all violent crime in most jurisdictions and up to 90% of the gun violence, according to NGIC analysis.
■ Major cities and suburban areas experience the most gang-related violence. Local neighborhood-based gangs and drug crews continue to pose the most significant criminal threat in most communities.
■ Aggressive recruitment of juveniles and immigrants, alliances and conflict between gangs, the release of incarcerated gang members from prison, advancements in technology and communication, and Mexican Drug Trafficking Organization (MDTO) involvement in drug distribution have resulted in gang expansion and violence in a number of jurisdictions.
■ Gangs are increasingly engaging in non-traditional gang-related crime, such as illegal alien smuggling, human trafficking, and prostitution.
■ Gangs are also engaging in white-collar crime such as counterfeiting, identity theft, and mortgage fraud, primarily due to the high profitability and much lower visibility and risk of detection and punishment than drug and weapons trafficking.
■ U.S. gangs have established strong working relationships with Central America criminal organizations to perpetrate illicit cross-border activity, establishing wide-reaching drug networks; assisting in the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and illegal immigrants along the Southwest Border
■ Many gang members continue to engage in gang activity while incarcerated. Family members play pivotal roles in assisting or facilitating gang activities and recruitment during a gang members’ incarceration.
■ Gang members in some correctional facilities are adopting radical religious views while incarcerated. This has lead to a growth of Islam within the prison system.
■ Gangs encourage members, associates, and relatives to obtain law enforcement, judiciary, or legal employment in order to gather information on rival gangs and law enforcement operations.
■ Gang infiltration of the military continues to pose a significant criminal threat, as members of at least 53 gangs have been identified on both domestic and international military installations.
Gang members who learn advanced weaponry and combat techniques in the military are at risk of employing these skills on the street when they return to their communities.
■ Gang members are acquiring high-powered, military-style weapons and equipment which poses a significant threat because of the potential to engage in lethal encounters with law enforcement officers and civilians.
■ Gangs typically acquired firearms are through illegal purchases from overseas arms manufacturers, straw purchases via surrogates or middle-men, and thefts from individuals, vehicles, residences and commercial establishments.
■ Gang members also target military and law enforcement officials, facilities, and vehicles to obtain weapons, ammunition, body armor, police gear, badges, uniforms, and official identification.
■Gangs on Indian Reservations often emulate national-level gangs and adopt names and identifiers from nationally recognized urban gangs. Gang members on some Indian Reservations are associating with gang members in the community to commit crime.
■Gangs are becoming increasingly adaptable and sophisticated, employing new and advanced technology to facilitate criminal activity discreetly, enhance their criminal operations, and connect with other gang members, criminal organizations, and potential recruits nationwide and even worldwide.
Gang membership continues to expand throughout communities nationwide, as gangs evolve, adapt to new threats, and form new associations. Consequently, gang-related crime and violence is increasing as gangs employ violence and intimidation to control their territory and illicit operations.
Many gangs have advanced beyond their traditional role as local retail drug distributors in large cities to become more organized, adaptable, and influential in large-scale drug trafficking.
Gang members are migrating from urban areas to suburban and rural communities to recruit new members, expand their drug distribution territories, form new alliances, and collaborate with rival gangs and criminal organizations for profit and influence.
Local neighborhood, hybrid and female gang membership is on the rise in many communities. Prison gang members, who exert control over many street gang members, often engage in crime and violence upon their return to the community.
Gang members returning to the community from prison have an adverse and lasting impact on neighborhoods, which may experience notable increases in crime, violence, and drug trafficking.
With approximately 1.4 million active street, outlaw motorcycle gang, and prison gang members, comprising more than 33,000 gangs, all criminally active within all 50 US states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, this surge represents a 40% increase from an estimated 1 million gang members in 2009.
This increase in gang membership is primarily due to aggressive recruitment efforts by gangs, the formation of new gangs, new opportunities for drug trafficking, and collaboration with rival gangs and drug trafficking organizations, and a lack of security on the U.S./Mexico border.
More than half of all law enforcement reports an increase in gang-related criminal activity in their jurisdictions over the past two years.
Neighborhood-based gangs continue to pose the greatest threat in most jurisdictions nationwide.
Since 2009, gang membership increased most significantly in the Northeast and Southeast regions, although the West and North Central regions - particularly Arizona, California, and Illinois - boast the highest number of gang members.
Sureño gangs, including Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), 18th Street, and Florencia 13, are expanding faster than other national-level gangs, both in membership and geographically.
Twenty states and the District of Columbia report an increase of Sureño migration into their region over the past three years. California has experienced a substantial migration of Sureño gangs into northern California and neighboring states, such as Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon, because of the lack of border security.
All of this makes one wonder why the Obama administration places such a focus on legal firearms when the real threat pertaining to guns is coming from those illegal arms being smuggled into the United States from Mexico, China, and Eastern European nations.
Yes, the president wants amnesty for everyone here illegally.
But don't swallow the lie that liberals are trying to feed you. Though the majority of the folks coming here illegally are good hard working people just looking for a better life for their families, like the Cuban Boat Lift under Jimmy Carter there are also murderers, rapists, child molesters, and other criminal types including gun smugglers and confederates to the Drug Cartels who want to live in the United States.
Homeland Security is buying enough arms and tanks to outfit an entire Army Division, and they are militarizing their people for trouble against us the American people.
But how can they be convinced that we don't need guarding as if America has become one big prison? How can we convince them that the problem is the gangs who are killing each other by the truckload?
Homeland Security seems very concerned about the amount of smuggling going on from the United States into Mexico, but the Department of Homeland Security seems totally unconcerned about the arms coming into the United States making their way into the hands of those who are really the threat today - those with illegal guns.
This all makes one wonder why our Federal government, which is specifically tasked with protecting America's ports and borders, is not doing their job?
The gutless cowards of Obama administration and Homeland Secruity see the American people as the easier target to attack.
Those who have the arms and personnel to secure the border, don't have the guts, determination, or integrity to attack the real threat from illegal guns and those shipping them into America accross our borders or into our ports and secure our border.
Story by Tom Correa