My letter to the General

In response to his paper as noted by Irons in the Fire and SayUncle:

Gen. McCaffrey,

In regards to your report from December regarding crime in Mexico, I would like to make some corrections to your assertions that military grade firearms are being smuggled into the country from the United States.

To legally purchase a Class III firearm, one needs to follow all the regulations of the 1934, 1968, and 1986 firearm acts. This includes a background check, $200 tax stamp, licensing, and registration through the BATFE. No new fully automatic or select fire weapons have been added to this registration since 1986. The cheapest firearms cost over $2500 with AK-47's averaging $5000 ea. Licensed dealer rarely have more than a few in stock at any one time if at all. RPG's, Grenades, and other heavy weapons are not available through any firearm dealer unless they are licensed for explosives as well, also not common. What the Mexican authorities are facing from the US are semi-auto only clones of military firearms, commonly known as 'assault weapons'.
Since every firearm of any type needs to undergo an NICS check from a licensed dealer, a purchase of "a hundred at a time" would flag the buyer and warrant an immediate investigation by the BATFE.

If you have direct knowledge that this is not so and dealers are actually selling fully-auto firearms and high explosives 'out the back door', it should be brought to light and these dealers indicted.

If the authorities are facing these types of firearms from the cartels, and I have no doubt they are, they need to look south, not north, and to their own house for the reason. Numerous Mexican officials have been caught in the US attempting to purchase firearms while the entire system, as you have stated, is rife with corruption. Which would make more sense, finding officers or soldiers who are willing to accept a bribe for them to 'lose' their weapon or leave an armory door unlocked, or travel to the US to try and find a very uncommon class of weapon costing thousands of dollars? The very existence of the "Zeta's" should answer that question.

Regards,
Thirdpower

Not a perfect letter but let's see if he responds.