Reply #48: The U.S. made M16's/M4's used by the cartels were sold to the Mexican military and police,

[benEzra]

with a few also probably coming from ex-Cold-War proxy stockpiles in Central America. Those guns are not available on the U.S. civilian market; the manufacture and sale of automatic weapons is restricted to military/police/government only and their suppliers in this country. The Mexican government and police can buy new M16's, M4's, and whatnot, but U.S. civilians cannot. And of course military AK-47's and RPG's are not only restricted here, they're not even made here; those come from former Warsaw Pact nations and their former Central American proxies.

And since the 1994 Feinstein law banned no guns (military or otherwise), and its expiration legalized no guns (military or otherwise), Calderon claiming that its expiration released a flood of civilian rifles into Mexico is just grandstanding.

Here's the rub: outlawing the most popular non-automatic civilian rifles in the United States won't do a damn thing about the cartel violence in Mexico. What it will do is reenact the 1994 debacle and resurrect the "Dems'll-take-yer-guns" mantra. More Americans lawfully own so-called "assault weapons" than hunt, and a lot of us are Dems and indies. We'll keep them, thanks.