re: Placing blame on inanimate objects versus getting to the root of the problem

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Mass shootings are mostly perpetrated by white males so the homogeneity of the culture has little to with it.

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Actually they don't. If you paid attention to the footnote on that graph and did a little critical thinking, you'd know the proper context to what you've posted. The total number of firearms seized over that span was something around 400k, the firearms submitted to the ATF for tracing were those thought to have the best chance of being traced to US manufacture only made up a small fraction of that 400k. So no, the overwhelming majority of cartel firearms do not come from the US. Many of those traced to the US were actually government owned weapons diverted by corrupted Mexican police and military personnel.

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I do question why any regular person really needs an assault rifle other than to feel like a badass who owns an assault rifle.

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And hey, if you're such a fervent supporter of the Constitution, you should be traditional across the board and only own muskets.

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No, you just have no clue what you are looking at. I remember the news articles when that info was released and they were using the same wrong context you are. Out of ALL the weapons siezed (400k), those deemed most likely to be traced in the US were sent to the ATF by the authorities. Out of those submitted, 70% were traced to US suppliers. Out of that 70%, some were weapons the US government sold to the Mexican government. So less than 20% of all the weapons siezed actually came from the US and even some of those were diverted by corrupt Mexican parties.

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To identify data available on the origin of firearms trafficked to Mexico that were seized and traced, we relied primarily on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) data compiled by its National Tracing Center (NTC).The data provided by NTC were obtained from ATF’s Firearms Tracing System, most of which is developed through eTrace submissions. We discussed with cognizant NTC officials the methodology used to collect these data and reviewed supporting agency documentation. Based on these discussions, we determined that NTC data were sufficiently reliable to permit an analysis of where the firearms seized in Mexico that were submitted for tracing had been manufactured and whether they had been imported into the United States before arriving in Mexico. For those firearms that were traced to a retail dealer in the United States before being trafficked to Mexico, NTC data also contained information on the states where they had originated. NTC trace data also contained information allowing identification of the types of firearms that were most commonly seized in Mexico and subsequently traced. We corroborated this information in discussions with U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials. Since firearms seized in Mexico are not always submitted for tracing within the same year as they were seized, it was not possible for us to develop data to track trends on the types of firearms seized year to year. Similarly, we were unable to obtain quantitative data from U.S. or Mexican government sources on the users of illicit firearms in Mexico. However, there was consensus among U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials that most illicit firearms seized in Mexico had been in the possession of organized criminal organizations linked to the drug trade. The involvement of criminal organizations with ties to drug trafficking in the trafficking of illicit firearms into Mexico was confirmed by law enforcement intelligence sources. We learned about the use of firearms parts for the assembly of firearms in Mexico through our interviews with cognizant U.S. and Mexican government and law enforcement officials and through review of ATF-provided documents. To learn more about U.S. government efforts to combat illicit sales of firearms in the United States and to stem the flow of these firearms across the Southwest border into Mexico, we interviewed cognizant officials from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) ATF, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Department of State (State) regarding their relevant efforts. We obtained data from ATF and ICE on funding for their respective efforts to address firearms trafficking to Mexico, and data from ICE on seizures of southbound firearms. To Appendix I: Scope and Methodology Appendix I: Scope and Methodology Page 36 GAO-16-223 Firearms Trafficking assess the reliability of the data, we discussed sources and the methodology use to develop the data with agency officials. We determined that the information provided to us was sufficiently reliable to describe agencies’ efforts to combat firearms trafficking. We also conducted fieldwork at U.S.-Mexico border crossings at El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California. In these locations, we interviewed ATF, CBP, and ICE officials responsible for overseeing and implementing efforts to stem the flow of illicit firearms trafficking to Mexico and related law enforcement initiatives. We reviewed and analyzed DOJ and DHS documents relevant to U.S. government efforts and collaboration to address arms trafficking to Mexico, including funding data provided to us by ATF and ICE, the 2009 memorandum of understanding (MOU) between ICE and ATF, data from ICE on seizures of firearms destined for Mexico, data from ATF and ICE on efforts to investigate and prosecute cases involving arms trafficking to Mexico, and agency reports and assessments related to the issue. We also reviewed relevant prior GAO reports, Congressional Research Service reports and memorandums, and reports from DOJ’s Office of Inspector General related to ATF’s efforts to enforce federal firearms laws. We reviewed provisions of federal firearms laws relevant to U.S. government efforts to address firearms trafficking to Mexico, including the Gun Control Act of 1968, the National Firearms Act of 1934, and the Arms Export Control Act of 1976. We did not independently review any Mexican laws for this report. To determine how well agencies collaborated with Mexican authorities to combat illicit firearms trafficking, we conducted fieldwork in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and border locations in Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana, Mexico. In Mexico, we met with ATF, CBP, ICE, and State officials working on law enforcement issues at the U.S. embassy. We interviewed Mexican government officials engaged in efforts to combat firearms trafficking from the Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduría General de la República), the Federal Police (Policía Federal); the Ministry of Public Safety (Secretaría de Seguridad Pública); the Ministry of Defense (Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional); the Mexican National Intelligence Agency (Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional, or CISEN); the Mexican Navy (Secretaría de Marina or Armada de Mexico); Customs (Servicio de Administración Tributaria); the Forensic Science Institute of Jalisco (Instituto Jalisciense de Ciencias Forenses); Attorney General Regional Offices, Federal Police, and State Police in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez; and the State Attorney General in Guadalajara. Because our fieldwork was limited to selected locations along the Southwest border and in the Appendix I: Scope and Methodology Page 37 GAO-16-223 Firearms Trafficking interior of Mexico, our observations in these locations are illustrative but are not generalizable and may not be representative of all efforts to address the issue. To assess the extent to which the National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy (Strategy) outlines U.S. goals and progress made in efforts to stem firearms trafficking to Mexico, we reviewed the 2011 and 2013 versions of the Strategy’s Weapons Chapter and the 2010 implementation guide. We also met with Office of National Drug Control Policy officials responsible for the implementation and monitoring the Strategy, as well as with ATF and ICE officials responsible for writing the Weapons Chapter and overseeing implementation and reporting on activities described within their respective agencies.

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“Thorough gun statistics are hard to come by and tricky to interpret. The key to this data is that most of these guns can’t be traced to U.S. gun dealers. And, some of those would actually trace back to the United States because of the federal government’s own gunwalking scandal. We also have to remember that the only guns Mexico is going to submit for tracing are guns they know are from the United States, which clearly paints an incomplete picture of the firearms found in the Mexico,” Grassley said in a press release.

In other words, did Mexico officials skew the data by only submitting guns they knew or thought to be U.S.-sourced?

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Note: These figures reflect firearms seized by Mexican authorities and traced by ATF, not all firearms seized in Mexico.

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Yes, the firearms submitted to the ATF were picked to have the best chance of being traced in the U.S.

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getting to the root of the problem

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Someone has to wait until they are 21 before they can buy alcohol.. But can buy an AR-15 at 18?

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