40% OF GUNS USED IN MEXICO CRIMES ORIGINATED IN TEXAS

Forty percent of Mexico gun crimes traced by the ATF last year used
guns originally sold in Texas, according to a report issued Tuesday by
a coalition of U.S. mayors.

The bipartisan advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns reported
that 2,076 guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico were tracked to
Texas by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives.

Texas had the highest percentage of any state in the study. Another 36
percent of guns seized in Mexico were traced to sales in New Mexico,
Arizona and California, according to the report by the coalition of
500 mayors. El Paso is not listed as part of the group.

"Illegal guns and their accompanying violence devastate communities
across our country. Now we know more about how guns purchased here
have helped sustain violent drug wars in Mexico," New York City mayor
and coalition co-chairman Michael R. Bloomberg said in a statement.

The report titled, The Movement of Illegal Guns Across the U.S.-Mexico
Border, was based on ATF data provided to the organization in March.

The report mentioned "90 percent of guns recovered and traced from
Mexican crime scenes originated from gun dealers in the United States."

An El Paso Times investigation last year found that the "90 percent"
figure, which was even quoted by President Barack Obama, refers to
only the percentage of the guns submitted by Mexico to the ATF for
tracing and not all guns seized in Mexico.

A spokesman for the National Rifle Association declined to comment on
the new report because he had yet to see it.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns reported the ATF traced more than 5,000
guns from Mexico in 2009. The report showed the period from when a gun
is purchased and then recovered in a crime in the U.S. is nearly 11
years, but the period was three years for guns in Mexico.

A recent Mexican government report on the drug war stated more than
84,000 firearms have been seized in Mexico from December 2006 to July
of this year.

The Mexican government reported the current violence is due to seven
wars among drug cartels in various regions of the country. There have
been more than 28,000 murders in Mexico linked to organized crime
since December 2006.

In Juarez, about 2,000 people have been killed this year because of
the war between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels. The Sinaloa
cartel is also called the Pacific cartel.

Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz is among voices asking the United
States to do more to stop the flow of weaponry, including high-powered
AK-47s and AR-15 rifles preferred by cartel gunmen.

"A high percentage of weapons that come into Ciudad Juarez come from
the United States, and Texas is the perfect corridor. It worries us a
lot," Juarez city spokesman Jaime Torres said.

Torres said the Juarez government is thankful for inspections by U.S.
federal agents on the international bridges looking for firearms
destined for Mexico.

The ATF is attempting to keep weapons out of the hands of Mexican drug
cartels by increasingly cooperating with Mexican authorities, working
with U.S. gun dealers and placing a bigger emphasis on the border.

ATF spokesman Special Agent Tom Crowley said a large number of
firearms smuggled to Mexico historically come from Texas simply
because of the huge Texas-Mexico border.

"What's important to realize about weapons going into Mexico is that
it's not only a border issue," Crowley said via telephone from Dallas.
"In El Paso, we are real busy. Everyday we are working firearms cases.
We got cases out here in Dallas, Oklahoma and - to be honest - all
around the country we have cases."

Crowley said cooperation between the ATF and gun sellers is needed to
identify "straw buyers," or customers purchasing weapons for somebody
else, including gun traffickers.

Crowley said the ATF in the "near future" will be adding extra staff
in El Paso, including firearm-trafficking investigators and agents
gathering intelligence.