2aHawaii

General Topics => Legal and Activism => Topic started by: ren on February 10, 2011, 09:01:59 AM

Title: Mexico's supply of guns _ NOT US!
Post by: ren on February 10, 2011, 09:01:59 AM
from STRATFOR. Interesting statistic. What we already know but gets distorted.

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: Mexico's supply of guns _ NOT US!
Post by: 2aHawaii on February 10, 2011, 09:56:08 AM
Nice infographic. It's a good way to visualize what has been said many times. Why would druglords want neutered US guns?
Title: Re: Mexico's supply of guns _ NOT US!
Post by: Tom_G on February 10, 2011, 10:49:01 AM
Wait... that's a horrible graphic!  Talk about distortions... 4,000 is more than half of 7,200, but the pie wedge makes it look much less.  And of those 4,000 successfully traced, almost all of them did come from the US. 

Here, try it like this:  of the 7,200 guns that the ATF were given to trace, 48% came from the US.

See, this is exactly the sort of thing that the antis accuse us of, distorting the facts.  And, in this case, they are right.  Someone went out of their way to make the pie wedges look less significant than they are.  Not a good way to win supporters.
Title: Re: Mexico's supply of guns _ NOT US!
Post by: 2aHawaii on February 10, 2011, 12:31:01 PM
My bad...I should have looked at the numbers closer. I do agree that it should be made more accurately.

Well if anyone is interested, here the Stratfor article explaining the chart (http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110209-mexicos-gun-supply-and-90-percent-myth).
Title: Re: Mexico's supply of guns _ NOT US!
Post by: 2aHawaii on February 10, 2011, 12:57:46 PM
Maybe this is a little better reproduction?

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: Mexico's supply of guns _ NOT US!
Post by: Tom_G on February 10, 2011, 01:12:53 PM
Definitely a less-biased representation, 2a. 

However, I still find it quite alarming that of the guns sent to the US for tracking, half were, indeed, of US origin.  Although it makes sense when I think about it.  Sure, the automatic weapons are coming from elsewhere, but that's hardly the extend of an army's arsenal, is it?  Think about our own military.  Every person with a machine gun also has a sidearm.  And for every soldier with a machine gun, there are 10 more with handguns only.  So of course there's a brisk trade for semi-automatic weapons!  And, accepting that, of course it makes sense that the US is a conveniently-located source with a poorly-policed border.