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Dear Editor:

An editorial published in The Daily Times on Wednesday, June 24, on gun smuggling to Mexico seriously overstates the problem and confuses the origins of the problem. While it is based on "facts" drawn from a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, those facts are incomplete, present a distorted picture and can be called into question by reasonable inquiry.

We are alarmed when we hear that 90 percent of the arms seized in Mexico can be traced to sources in the U.S. But wait, that's not the whole story. In his new book, Glenn Beck reveals more facts about the figure of 90 percent. The truth is that the figure only refers to the guns that are returned to the U.S. by the Mexican government, not to all guns seized by Mexican authorities. Nor does that percentage take into account how Mexico decides which guns to return (why do they "return" 10 percent that do not originate in the U.S., for instance?).

Beck has access to other data which shows that "only 17 to 36 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes originate in the U.S.," cited from Glen Beck's Common Sense, 2009, p. 86. This, of course, causes the gun smuggling problem to appear much less of a U.S. problem than was presented in the editorial. If no more than one third of the illegal guns in Mexico have U.S. origins, then we have cause and time to investigate U.S. responsibility further without acting hastily.

Another aspect of the editorial prevents reasonable consideration of what to do about the problem of gun running to Mexico. After tracing guns to the U.S., what is the conclusion as to who is supplying them? Are the guns being illicitly supplied through irresponsible retailers or shippers? Or are most of the guns stolen in the U.S. and then collected by people who sell them to Mexican drug cartels? Or is there some other unknown supply chain? The Daily Times makes no mention of knowledge concerning the true origin of the guns other than denying that it is gun permit holders. Obviously, we cannot begin to stem the illegitimate flow of firearms to Mexico without more specific awareness of where they are coming from.

What worries me is that the incomplete information cited in The Daily Times editorial will be used to further restrict our right to keep and bear arms in the U.S., and not solve the Mexican drug and gun problem.

David A. Bell

7249 Sinking Creek Road

Greenback, TN 37742