HERE WE GO AGAIN

The Washington Post decided to start off the week by blaming easy access to guns in the U.S. for Mexico's organized crime woes, a position somewhat akin to the Garth Brooks lyric, "Long neck bottle, let go of my hand."

It's a typical argument favored by American media, most of whom, I'd wager, have rarely picked up a gun in their life and carry a somewhat unhealthy cynicism about weapons.

The story starts with the premise that Mexican police are outgunned by their better-armed enemy, the cartel killers. It's a lovely piece of theatre, conjuring up images of brave Mexican law enforcement in stand-offs against coked-out guns for hire. It also conveniently ignores the complicity of renegade Mexican law enforcement cutting deals with their narco-trafficking counterparts. Last month, three cops, including a Mexican FBI chief, were arrested at a Phoenix gunshow buying handguns to take home to Baja California Sur.

Then the story takes the ATF guys in Phoenix and a California professor to explain the "loopholes" created by the expiration of the assault weapons ban. The story then offers up this succinct anecdote about the ease of buying semi-automatic weapons:

"It can take less than a minute," said Wintemute, who has watched unlicensed dealers wearing sandwich boards at gun shows and piling weapons for sale into baby carriages.

Nice. So nice in fact that the predictably leftist Huffington Post picked up the story this morning with the outcry: "100 Percent of Drug Killings Committed With US Guns."

Goddam, how I wish reporters schooled themselves in basic law before writing their stories.

The increase has been stoked by the cartel war and by the ease of buying high-powered weapons since the U.S. assault weapons ban was not renewed in 2004, William Newell, a special agent in charge of the ATF's Phoenix office, said in an interview.

Well, no actually. The ban had little to do with the guns themselves, it restricted features of these guns; like high-capacity magazines, folding stocks, pistol grips and flash suppressors.

Without delving too much more into this matter because I have much more interesting news to report this morning, let me just say this:

I see no reason to acquiesce my Second Amendment rights in order to pacify Mexico's national security issues. I'm no avid gun collector, at best, I guess you could consider me a gun enthusiast, but it's infuriating to me that we are pounded over the head with front page stories in national newspapers blaming this country's right to carry for the failings of the burgeoning narcocracy to the south.

-- Michael Marizco