Gun raids show cartels at work in Arizona

[Contrary1]

I'm curious to see how Brewer will respond to this, if at all.

Weak laws let ‘straw buyers’ amass hundreds of assault rifles, federal officials say

"Federal officials say they have new evidence that Mexico's most violent drug cartels are exploiting weak U.S. guns laws to acquire massive quantities of assault rifles and other firearms for use in their war against the Mexican government.

In an early morning round-up in Arizona, law enforcement agents Tuesday arrested 20 people who are accused of illegally buying hundreds of AK-47s and other firearms at U.S. gun stores. The defendants allegedly acted as "straw purchasers," falsely declaring on federal forms they were purchasing the weapons for themselves, rather than their real clients: the Sinaloa Cartel and other Mexican drug trafficking organizations across the border, the officials said.

"The massive size of this operation exemplifies the magnitude of the problem — Mexican drug lords go shopping for war weapons in Arizona," said Dennis K. Burke, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, who announced the raids at a press conference in Phoenix.

The raids, along with five accompanying indictments of 34 suspects, are likely to call new attention to the state of U.S. gun laws at a time they have been the subject of mounting debate in recent weeks triggered by the Tucson shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords..."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41257218/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

[ManiacJoe]

1. Ignoring the repeated misuse of the term "assault rifle",

it is nice to see that the government is choosing to prosecute the straw purchasers.

[slackmaster]

2. It's really a federal problem, not Arizona's

Federal gun laws and federal import/export laws were broken.

[PavePusher]

3. You realize, of course, that this has nothing to do with Arizona gun laws...

and is only about Federal laws, right?

[lawodevolution]

4. Who cares about Brewer's view, is a state government authorized to deal with foreign nations?

My response is this, strong gun laws in Mexico + 1/6 the us civilian gun possession rate and yet they have much more violence. It's time Mexico looked toward the US for advise on how they should model their gun laws because their current model is a failure