"Felipe Calderon received liberal plaudits for falsely claiming Arizona's new immigration law uses racial profiling, but that wasn't the only baloney the Mexican president peddled during his state visit. Over four minutes of his Thursday address to Congress was spent lecturing Americans to renew the federal Assault Weapons Ban that sunset in September 2004. His justifications for the ban were all garbage. Mr. Calderon claimed that guns covered by the federal ban were particularly 'powerful weapons.' While the term 'assault weapons' may conjure up visions of military hardware, the inside guts of these feared guns are essentially the same as deer hunting rifles. The firing mechanisms in semiautomatics and machine guns are completely different. ...
'If you look carefully, you will notice that the violence in Mexico started to grow a couple of years before I took office in 2006,' Mr. Calderon said. 'This coincides, at least, with the lifting of the [U.S.] assault weapons ban in 2004.' ...
Mr. Calderon's claim that 80 percent of guns used in Mexican crimes come from the United States is completely false. Most weapons seized in Mexico have traceable serial numbers that show they come from countries other than the United States. The 80 percent number reflects how many guns sent to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for tracing end up being from America. Most weapons seized in Mexico aren't transferred to U.S. authorities, so that figure is meaningless for calculating overall totals.
It is offensive for Mr. Calderon to come here as our guest and make up facts to blame America for Mexico's many problems. But it was more frightening to witness Democratic House and Senate members jump up and give a standing ovation when the foreigner called for renewing the Assault Weapons Ban. That's a warning all American gun owners should heed." --The Washington Times
