That whole article you linked was full of such avoidance of the obvious while simultaneously leaping to far fetched conclusions. It was quite painful to read that cheap hack job. You’re not the author are you?

A few questions for the author:

- Could you please link Agent McMahon’s testimony in which he provides the figures to clarify the famous 90%? This would be helpful for all of us trying to understand the facts and how this 90% confusion was generated. This would help me understand the differences between the figures you quote – 100,000 seized in Mexico, etc – to what is quoted by FOX and others – 29,000, etc. Perhaps you are looking at seizures over a longer period of time? It’s not clear, and linking to McMahon’s figures (just as you linked to the FOX piece), would at least help me calculate these percentages along with you.

- Can you please explain how you get from an 18% figure quoted at the top of your article to the 8% figure you use by the middle and the end? Is the 10% a difference between traceable guns originating in the US and traceable guns SOLD at gun stores? Or is this merely a typo? If 8% is the percentage of guns traced to gun store transactions, shouldn’t we simply refer to the 18% figure since what Obama and Clinton and members of Congress were referencing were guns traced to the US and not specifically traced to gun shop sales?

- Although the ATF finally clarified their statistics, it is important to note to that the ATF were the ones to originally sew this confusion. To make it clear, linking Mexican violence to US guns has been, and continues to be, a major talking point of the ATF this entire year. Please note Zachriel’s link in #41 (McMahon himself) as well as statements made by ATF Agents on March 17, 2009 (Agents Hoover and Newell, I believe): http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/cngrtest/ct031709.pdf.

- What is the basis of this statement? “But only a fraction of the guns recovered by the Mexican authorities were turned over to the ATF, because most of the weapons recovered had markings that clearly identified their origins in other countries.”

- Finally, one quick thing with this statement here:

“The majority of American weapons that find their way into the hands of Mexican drug cartels come from stolen weapons, or firearms that were obtained in person-to-person sales without a licensed gun dealer being involved. These person-to-person sales are often erroneously cited as evidence of a “gun show loophole” in the media, because person-to-person sales frequently take place at these venues (licensed dealers must perform NICS background checks, whether they are at a gun show or they are at their storefront location). The fact of the matter, however, is that these sales can legally take place nearly anywhere guns are not specifically banned.”

You state that half of these guns come from either stolen firearms (some citations for this statement would be helpful) or person to person sales. If we were to assume that a sizeable chunk came from person to person sales, what are we to do to discourage sales like these from ending up as illegally smuggled guns in Mexico?

In Summary, if you want to go after anyone here, it would seem like you could make a much more reasonable case of going after the ATF rather than politicians who are given talking points and short briefings by aides and department heads (read: the ATF). I wouldn’t chock this up so quickly to a deliberate attempt by the Obama Administration to misinform the American people (read: LIE) as a mishandling of the facts (by many people, including the ATF). Was there whiff of political rhetoric at play here? Sure. Is it a coincidence that these numbers came out right around the time that Obama and Clinton visited Mexico? Is it a coincidence that these numbers came out during discussions over budgetary allocations and the economic stimulus package? Certainly numbers like the old 90% could help justify larger budgets over at ATF, couldn’t they?

Here’s a link to another attempt to explain the ATF figures from a group that claims to be nonpartisan but probably leans left (it shouldn’t matter, should it?):

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/counting-mexicos-guns/

Finally, for those in the comments concerned about “whistleblower” McMahon, don’t you worry about his career. He’ll be just fine.

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