“They were under siege by a Mexican cartel. Now these civilians fight back with AK-47s and grenades,” The Washington Post reports. “Residents in the Mexican central state of Guerrero are setting up self-defense patrols to keep a powerful cartel out of their mountain towns.”

That’s a good thing, right? Citizens who want to live their lives banding together to defend themselves against evil oppressors? That’s not why they’re posting this.

Because while it seems like the overwhelmed and outgunned Mexican citizens – who can’t rely on the government for justice – fighting for self-defense, freedom, and survival, are doing what any decent human being unwilling to live as a victim or a slave would do, that’s not the point of this story. So, the WaPo feigns understanding and objectivity but then shapes a narrative.

By lumping defenders in with “local gangs and vigilante groups, many of which are allied with the larger cartels,” and noting “Because Mexico has strict gun control laws, the vast majority of arms in Mexico are smuggled from the U.S. by cartels,” they’ve just been redefined as part of the “problem,” their motives notwithstanding. And the larger problem, per a prohibitionist narrative that keeps being recycled, is the carnage is caused by American weaponry being smuggled into Mexico, and that’s all due to the Second Amendment and “lax U.S. gun laws.”

Where have we heard that before?

Gun control doesn’t work in Mexico, why would it work here in the U.S.? pic.twitter.com/KXlAtIb3Tf

— Crime Prevention Research Center (@CrimeResearch1) January 7, 2023

Fingers would be better pointed at Mexico’s pervasive corruption and tyrannical citizen disarmament edicts that have made a cartel black market both lucrative and inevitably bloody. And the narrative perpetuated by the article repeats the lies used so shamelessly to gin up domestic support for gun bans here.

Start with the grenades. These aren’t arms you can pick up at a gun show or from your local FFL.

From my January 2011 report, “Ordnance crossing into Mexico over border—its southern one”:

“Mexico… is also flooded with hand grenades … some of the grenade stockpiles are coming up from leftover military depots in Central America from the 1980s… Some have been taken/bought/stolen from the Mexican army itself.”

Later that year, I cited ATF actions concerning inert grenade hulls and controlled delivery to Mexico and attempts to retaliate against whistleblower Peter Forcelli by trying to undermine his credibility (also see my  AmmoLand interview with Forcelli and review of his book).

And there’s one other major lie being told, and this is a long known and calculated one originated by a veteran gun prohibitionist group.

The civilians are “Armed with military-grade weapons smuggled from the U.S.,” WaPo declares. Again, “thanks” to the National Firearms Act and the Hughes Amendment, “military grade” (full -auto capable) rifles are not something you can just “straw purchase” from a gun store and drive across the border. Whoever is getting the military stuff is getting it through corrupt official sources. The lie being promoted here plays right into the hands of the Violence Policy Center, that uses it to agitate for semi-auto bans:

“The weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.”

Then there’s the other jaw of the pincer.

“Inside the Supply Line Delivering American Guns to Mexican Cartels,” The New York Times headline proclaims. “A surge of weapons is flowing from the U.S. to Mexico. These firearms — sourced from gun shops, shows, websites and apps — are funneled across the border to fuel the country’s most violent crimes.”

Heavy on anecdotes and estimates, the same old tricks used prior, during, and after Operation Fast and Furious “gunwalking” have been dusted off for reuse with a new generation of readers.

“About 80 percent of weapons seized by Mexican authorities come from the United States, [Mexico’s security minister, Omar Harfuch] said at a recent news conference,” readers are further “informed.”

“[B]oth Sinaloa Cartel and its rival Jalisco New Generation Cartel are increasingly armed with weapons like grenade launchers, grenades, machine guns and assault rifles,” they are told. What they’re not told is what “gun shops, shows, websites and apps” sell those things to Americans.

From a report I posted in 2009,

I’d like to share with you a bit of testimony, from the Statement of David Ogden, Deputy Attorney General, United States Department of Justice, before the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing entitled “Southern Border Violence: Homeland Security Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Responsibilities”, presented March 25, 2009. Just a small bit, really, but a critical one, almost lost in the 20 pages of his statement:

According to ATF’s Tracing Center, 90 percent of the firearms about which ATF receives information are traceable to the United States.

Read it again and compare it to what the antis are saying. It’s very different, isn’t it?

It’s not guns “seized” by Mexican authorities. It’s the unknown percentage of those seized then submitted to ATF for tracing. Both Minister Harfuch and The Times know that.

And from another:

What is being ignored is the fact that the United States government (via Departments of Defense and State) sells thousands of military and non-military firearms to foreign governments, including Mexico and Central and South American countries…Many of these governments are notoriously corrupt and unstable. Moreover, we know that individuals in the Mexican police and military have ties to the drug cartels. It is highly reasonable, if not probable, that many of these weapons (and those sold to these nations in previous years), have now made their way onto the black market and thereby being funneled into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels. If traced by the BATFE, any of the firearms above would return as “originating in the US.”  Origination in the US clearly does not equate to an origination in the lawful US civilian market. [Emphasis added]

“Conviction of Top Mexican Cop Shows Corruption Problem, Not U.S. Guns,” I reported for Firearms News 14 years later. “Former Mexico Public Security Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna is guilty of drug trafficking, also showing new points on American guns in Mexico.”

And from a 2021 AmmoLand report:

U.S. Guns-to-Mexico Reports Suggests ‘Deja Vu All Over Again’

No one is saying U.S. guns don’t get smuggled into Mexico just as certainly as drugs are smuggled from there to here. A reporter wishing to make that case will absolutely be able to find untold examples to exploit. But when they don’t present the complete picture and then rely on recycling the same canards that were debunked years ago, it needs to be called out by those who know better. Especially when “experience hath shewn” the point behind the propaganda is to gin up low information voter support for being swindled out of their rights.

The answer is to expose corruption and enhance border security, not undermine the security of a free state by infringing on the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

(NOTE: Some of the substantiating links used in this article go to stories from discontinued websites that are only available via the Internet Archive (“Wayback Machine”), and may load slowly or time out.)

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.