[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 13221-13222]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 CROSS-BORDER THREAT OF ASSAULT WEAPONS

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, last month, Mexican President Felipe 
Calderon addressed a joint session of Congress, highlighting the 
dangerous role that American-made firearms play in the violence 
currently plaguing both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. President 
Calderon drew a link between the 2004 expiration of the U.S. federal 
assault weapons ban and a subsequent surge in violence in Mexico. In 
his speech, President Calderon urged Congress to reinstate a federal 
ban on assault weapons, a call I have long supported. By exploiting 
weak U.S. gun laws and corrupt gun sellers in the United States, 
Mexican drug gangs have amassed arsenals of military-style assault 
weapons. These guns have been used to kill thousands in Mexico and pose 
a grave and growing security threat to Americans north of the border.
  Mexican law enforcement officials increasingly are being out-gunned 
by drug gangs bearing military-style assault weapons, .50 caliber 
sniper rifles and other high-powered weapons that originate in the 
United States. Using trace data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, 
Firearms and Explosives, ATF, the U.S. Government Accountability 
Office, GAO, determined that from fiscal year 2004 to fiscal year 2008, 
over 20,000, or 87 percent, of firearms seized by Mexican authorities 
originated in the United States. Additionally, the GAO reported that 
the number of assault weapons within this total continues to grow. In 
fact, approximately 25 percent of the firearms seized by Mexican 
authorities in fiscal year 2008 were high-powered assault weapons, such 
as AR-15 and AK-type semi-automatic rifles.
  However, the threat posed by assault weapons is not faced exclusively 
by law enforcement personnel in Mexico. Drug trafficking across the 
border into the United States has been increasingly accompanied by 
violence in the American Southwest, forcing police departments to 
combat criminals with military-style arsenals. Former Houston Police

[[Page 13222]]

Chief Harold Hurtt acknowledged the AK-47 assault rifle has become the 
``weapon of choice'' for major drug dealers, warring gangs and 
immigrant smugglers. ``The reality on the street is that many of these 
weapons are readily available,'' according to Hurtt, forcing the 
Houston Police Department to consistently upgrade its weaponry to match 
the firepower of criminals armed with assault weapons. Just last week, 
Jeffrey Kirkham, the Chief of Police in Nogales, Arizona, reported that 
Mexican drug cartels have made death threats against his department in 
response to a successful drug bust. Criminals armed with assault 
weapons are a direct threat to American law enforcement officials and 
the communities they protect.
  Reauthorizing a Federal ban on assault weapons would help to reduce 
violence in Mexico and the United States. When the first federal 
assault weapons ban expired in 2004, 19 of the highest powered and most 
lethal firearms became legal to purchase, including semiautomatic 
weapons that incorporated bayonet mounts or grenade launchers. In the 
absence of a ban, these lethal weapons continue to stream across the 
Mexican border, arming criminals and placing border communities in 
grave danger. The reinstatement of a Federal assault weapons ban has 
the overwhelming support of the law enforcement community, and I look 
forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate toward that goal.

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