Mexican ambassador calls 2nd Amendment fears 'gobbledygook'

WASHINGTON - In a slap at gun-rights advocates, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S. dismissed accusations that Mexico is seeking to undermine the Second Amendment in order to curb the influx of U.S.-purchased guns.

"There is an 'urban myth' out there that somehow the Mexican government is seeking to lobby against and destroy the rights enshrined in the Second Amendment," said Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan. "This is gobbledygook."

Speaking at a forum on Capitol Hill, Sarukhan said "the Founding Fathers did not draft the Second Amendment to" permit surrogates - straw purchasers - to buy military-style weapons in Texas, California and other border states and ship them to violent Mexican drug cartels.

Drug violence has claimed the lives of 50,000 Mexicans since 2006 and Mexican officials have cited border-state gun sales as a chief source of cartel weaponry.

'Whack-a-mole' result

Sarukhan praised the Obama administration for requiring border-state firearms dealers to report multiple sales of rifles to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

But he acknowledged that a beefed-up effort to stem gun trafficking likely would produce a "whack-a-mole" result in which cartels would get weapons from other sources.

Nevertheless, "the number and volume of guns coming across the border from the U.S. into Mexico has been such that we need to put a dent into (the cartels') ability to" traffic them, he said.

Last month, ATF reported that of nearly 100,000 guns seized and submitted by Mexican authorities to the ATF for tracing between 2007 and 2011, about 68,000 were "U.S. sourced," meaning they were manufactured in or imported into the U.S.

Of those 68,000, about 28,000 were traced to an initial purchaser.

In addition, ATF data showed the proportion of rifles recovered in Mexico and submitted to ATF for tracing rose significantly between 2007 and 2011.

Noting the U.S. assault weapons ban terminated in 2004, Sarukhan said: "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand why this has happened."

Gun-rights advocates have said Mexico's stance on curbing U.S.-purchased guns could threaten the rights of legitimate gun buyers.

Sarukhan was making excuses for Mexico's failure to curb police, judicial and military corruption that undermines its pursuit of the cartels, they said.

Mexican 'corruption'

"There's finger-pointing at America but no mention of the corruption so pervasive in Mexico," said Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the National Rifle Association, when asked for reaction to Sarukhan's comments.

Restricting the Second Amendment rights of Americans is neither an option nor a solution to Mexico's internal crime problem," said Lawrence Keane, general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents gun manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers.

At the forum, sponsored by the Democratic-aligned think tank and advocacy organization NDN, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said his proposal to increase penalties for straw purchases of Mexico-bound weapons would help reduce incentives to buy for the cartels.

"Imagine the situation in which tens of thousands of Americans were dying from weapons that were smuggled into our country from our neighbor," he said.

"It ought to be easy for us to understand how Mexico feels about this illicit gun trade," Schiff said.

Jackson Lee speaks

Also at the forum, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, took a swipe at border-state governments such as Texas that she suggested had little interest in the southward flow of guns.

"We need to hear each other," she said.

"We need states rising up as well, recognizing the damage that they're doing, in conjunction with the federal government."

dan@hearstdc.com