Mexican Gun Canard, Yet Again

Here's what happens when half-assed reports get put online. They get looked at, and exposed as half assed. The latest version of the Mexican gun canard comes from a paper from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Mexico Institute . In it we are told:

In May 2010, for example, the Mexican government, which has received training from ATF to better identify firearms, said that of the 75,000 firearms it seized in the last three years about 80 percent, or 60,000 firearms, came from the United States.¹⁸

But, footnote 18 takes us here, where it actually says (emphasis mine):

Calderón said his government had seized 75,000 guns in Mexico in a three-year period and found that 80 percent of those whose origin could be traced were bought in the United States.

We've heard that before, and what it means is that 60,000 is way, way high. Here is a good explanation of what is really going on. Short answer: 17% of the guns used in Mexican crime are traced back to the US.

That footnote also links to another article (you can have two references per footnote? Must be a "scholars only" thing) that omits the "whose origin could be traced" part and gives them what they wanted to hear in the first place:

Mr. Calderon told a joint session of Congress that of the 75,000 guns seized by Mexican authorities over the last three years, 80 percent are traced to the U.S.

Shoddy work, Kara Rowland, shoddy, shoddy, shoddy.

They keeping throwing crap on the wall to see if it will stick, we keep washing it off.

So be it.
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