On Saturday morning's The Cross Connection, MSNBC again showed itself to be the place for fake news pushing liberal causes as host Tiffany Cross repeated a disputed statistic claiming that 70 to 90 percent of guns used in Mexico are from the United States, thus giving Mexico a rationale to sue gun manufacturers in the U.S.
Setting up a segment on the topic, Cross recalled:
An estimated 200,000 firearms are illegally trafficked from the U.S. to Mexico every year and between 70 percent and 90 percent of the firearms found at crime scenes in Mexico are traced right back here. So, in an unprecedented move, the Mexican government is suing American gun manufacturers to the tune of $10 billion for the damage caused by the flow of weapons trafficked across the border.
She then made a crack suggesting that a lack of border security hurts Mexico more than it does the U.S. as she added:
"Why don't Americans try this after every one of our countless mass shootings?" you ask. Because usually they can't. The Protection of Lawful Commerce and Arms Act is a federal law that grants fraud immunity to gun manufacturers, and the jury is out on whether Mexico will be able to bypass it as well.
After bringing aboard her guest, anti-gun activist Ioan Grillo, she posed:
You know, I was looking at these statistics when I was doing research for this segment, and it's baffling, you know. We've spent so many years of these backwards people yelling, "Build a wall!" and I thought, "Why hasn't Mexico been at the border saying, 'Build a wall,' since all of our arms seem to find their way to the Southern border?"
But the claim that an overwhelming majority of crime guns come from the U.S. has been disputed by a variety of sources, and, even PolitiFact's analysis that disputes Fox's take admits that some guns traced back to the U.S. were originally manufactured in other countries before going through the U.S. to Mexico.
Here's Politifact knocking down Barack Obama on the subject:
But we think Obama also mischaracterizes the statistic some when he says 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States. Not every gun recovered in Mexico is submitted to the ATF for tracing. And so Obama and others can't know exactly what percentage come from the United States. They can only speak to the guns successfully traced by the ATF. And so we rule Obama's statement Half True.
The MSNBC host then turned to a Washington Post article that she complained was not negative enough against former NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch as Cross followed up:
There are a lot of Americans that have this weird love affair with guns. The Washington Post did this incredibly disgusting tone-deaf piece on the NRA and Dana and they described her "penetrating dark eyes" and jaw line. You've actually interviewed or spoken with some of the U.S. gun manufacturers. I'm curious, what is their response to the damage they're causing in Mexico?
After her guest lamented that a gun manufacturer he spoke to argued that he did not feel guilty about selling a legal product, Cross further smeared gun makers: "It's baffling but not surprising, I suppose, that the gun manufacturer was not concerned ethically, and certainly they aren't concerned morally."
This episode of MSNBC's The Cross Connection was sponsored in part by Metamucil. Click on the link to let them know what you think.
Transcript follows. Click "expand" to read more.
MSNBC's The Cross Connection
September 4, 2021
TIFFANY CROSS: Okay, so get this. An estimated 200,000 firearms are illegally trafficked from the U.S. to Mexico every year and between 70 percent and 90 percent of the firearms found at crime scenes in Mexico are traced right back here. So, in an unprecedented move, the Mexican government is suing American gun manufacturers to the tune of $10 billion for the damage caused by the flow of weapons trafficked across the border.
"Why don't Americans try this after every one of our countless mass shootings?" you ask. Because usually they can't. The Protection of Lawful Commerce and Arms Act is a federal law that grants fraud immunity to gun manufacturers, and the jury is out on whether Mexico will be able to bypass it as well.
(...)
You know, I was looking at these statistics when I was doing research for this segment, and it's baffling, you know. We've spent so many years of these backwards people yelling, "Build a wall!" and I thought, "Why hasn't Mexico been at the border saying, 'Build a wall,' since all of our arms seem to find their way to the Southern border?"
(...)
There are a lot of Americans that have this weird love affair with guns. The Washington Post did this incredibly disgusting tone-deaf piece on the NRA and Dana and they described her "penetrating dark eyes" and jaw line. You've actually interviewed or spoken with some of the U.S. gun manufacturers. I'm curious, what is their response to the damage they're causing in Mexico?
(...)
It's baffling but not surprising, I suppose, that the gun manufacturer was not concerned ethically, and certainly they aren't concerned morally.
