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L.A. TIMES: Barack Obama way wrong on U.S. guns in Mexico: On his recently-concluded first visit?

By Glenn Reynolds

L.A. TIMES: Barack Obama way wrong on U.S. guns in Mexico:

On his recently-concluded first visit to Mexico, a week after telling Europeans that his country was at times arrogant, President Barack Obama blamed his own country for providing 90% of Mexico’s recovered crime guns.

According to a report by the independent FactCheck.org this afternoon, that’s incorrect. By a, uh, long shot.

The president’s assertion and the reported inaccuracy seems likely to fuel the eternal American gun control debate, especially as it relates to the U.S. role in Mexico’s deadly drug world.

FactCheck.org says:

The figure represents only the percentage of crime guns that have been submitted by Mexican officials and traced by U.S. officials. We can find no hard data on the total number of guns actually “recovered in Mexico,” but U.S. and Mexican officials both say that Mexico recovers more guns that it submits for tracing. Therefore, the percentage of guns “recovered” and traced to U.S. sources necessarily is less than 90 percent.

Furthermore, the 90 percent figure is based on a badly biased sample of all Mexican crime guns. Law enforcement officials say Mexico asks the U.S. to trace only those guns with serial numbers or other markings that indicate they are likely to have come though the U.S.

Bogus numbers? And I thought this Administration was going to end the war on science.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on April 18, 2009 (boomark / email).