Cop-Killing Guns Flooding Into Mexico

Nah, we don't need a border fence.

JUAREZ, Mexico (CNN) -- A deadly trade is occurring along the U.S. border with Mexico, federal officials say -- a flood of guns, heading south, used by drug thugs to kill Mexican cops.

In Mexico, guns are difficult to purchase legally. So, officials say, weapons easily purchased in the United States are turning up there.

"The same routes that are being used to traffic drugs north -- and the same organizations that have control over those routes -- are the same organizations that bring the money and the cash proceeds south as well as the guns and the ammunition," says Bill Newell, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Police in Mexican border towns fear for their lives, and with good reason. Five high-ranking Mexican police officials have been killed this year in what Mexican officials say is an escalating war between police and drug cartels.

ATF special agent Tom Mangan says the .50-caliber rifle has become one of the "guns of choice" for the drug cartels. The weapon fires palm-sized .50-caliber rounds that can cut through just about anything. (H/T - CNN)

The story goes on to say that many of these gun purchases are made illegally here, which illustrates my point about banning all firearms; an idiotic idea shared by my current police commissioner. You can ban them all you want; the thugs will still find ways to procure them. You see, part of being a criminal is doing things that are illegal - a fact that is lost on my commish. In a city with an average of 400 homicides a year, you could count the killings with legal, registered handguns on one hand.

You would think stories like these would be incentive for Mexico to back our border fence idea. Yeah, right. Apparently, police officers in Mexico are held with the same regard as they are in the States - very little.