Mexico either refuses to or is utterly incapable of getting their drug cartel problem under control as they ravage innocent people. So instead, they’ve chose to shift blame to the United States and target American gun rights in a pair of lawsuits in American courts. In a segment on Sunday’s 60 Minutes, CBS News chose to cheer on Mexico’s effort as they willing pushed foreign propaganda in an effort to tear down Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
“There`s been a lot of talk about stopping the flow of illegal immigration and drugs from Mexico. But few people are talking about another crisis at the border -- guns. Specifically, American guns,” chided correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi.
She parroted Mexican talking points that blamed American gun rights for cartel violence, not Mexico’s refusal to crackdown and their rampant corruption. She even suggested that Mexico’s actions against the U.S. could “fix” the “problems” with America’s gun rights:
Mexico says those American guns are responsible for much of the cartel violence that`s plagued its country. And now, it`s taking an unusual approach to try and stop it -- it`s suing. The government of Mexico has filed lawsuits in U.S. courts against a handful of gun stores and one of the largest gun manufacturers in America. It believes damning that "iron river" might also fix some of the problems that plague the U.S.
The video portion of the segment opened with comments from anti-gun rights lawyer Jonathan Lowy suggesting that Americans should care just as much about Mexico’s crime rates as they do about fentanyl overdoses and illegal immigration into the U.S. Alfonsi touts that Lowy had teamed up with Mexico against America:
LOWY: If you think fentanyl overdoses are a problem, if you think migration across the border is a problem, if you think the spread of organized crime is a problem in the United States, then you should care about stopping the crime gun pipeline to Mexico. And you need to stop it at its source. Because all those problems are driven by the supply of U.S. guns to the cartels.
ALFONSI: Jonathan Lowy is an American attorney who`s been battling the gun industry in court for 25 years. Mexico asked Lowy to help devise its strategy to cut off the gun pipeline after one of the deadliest chapters in the country`s history…
Alfonsi also sat down with anti-American former Mexican President Andrea Manuel Lopez Obrador, who made the dubious claim that when he was leading the country, “We have confiscated, in the time that I`ve been in government, 50,000 guns of high power, of high caliber -- 50,000 guns. And 75 percent of them from the United States.”
Being an ignorant liberal journalist, Alfonsi didn’t ask about what Obrador meant by “guns of high power, of high caliber.”
The report cheered on Mexico’s lawsuits against gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson and five gun stores in Arizona. Without providing evidence, Alfonsi boosted claims by Lowy that the store owners should just magically know that the people walking into their establishments were working for the cartels. One of the telltale signs? Using U.S. currency (Click “expand”):
LOWY: The dealer`s main responsibility, in my view, is to pay attention to indicators to see if the person standing in front of them, on the other side of the counter, is a potential criminal or supplier to the criminal market.
ALFONSI: The gun retailers say it`s really hard to know sometimes if somebody`s a straw buyer, right? That they come in with a good cover story and you have to believe them.
LOWY: It`s pretty obvious. I mean, you see these multiple sales of AR-15s. You see these large cash payments, you see these persons coming back to the store every few days or every few weeks. I mean, these are not normal buying patterns.
Lowy also claimed S&W was somehow aware that they were selling to stores selling to Mexican drug cartels:
ALFONSI: How can you say manufacturers are responsible for anything when there are so many steps in the process between the time that they make it and it goes to the retailer, and then maybe it`s sold to somebody else or resold? How can you trace it back and say, "It`s the manufacturers."
LOWY: When manufacturers make the decision, "We`re going to sell guns through dealers no matter what their record is, no matter how many crime guns they`re selling," you know, that`s on them.
What the report failed to establish, and Alfonsi was probably too ignorant to ask, was: how long was the time-to-crime between the sale of the guns in America and them turning up at crime scenes in Mexico?
CBS News like to blame gun crime on the increase in gun sales. But as The Reload founder Stephen Gutowski told NewsBusters in April 2022, the trace data shows (the same data cited in the report to smear S&W) “most guns recovered at crime scenes are years old,” which means the guns are likely stolen. At least in the U.S.
Despite speaking with former ATF Agent Tim Sloan, who worked in the Mexico field office, at no point in the report did Alfonsi mention that the AFT helped to facilitate straw purchases of guns to Mexican drug cartels via the infamous Operation Fast and Furious gunwalking scheme. There also didn’t seem to be a question about how many of those guns could still be kicking around in Mexico; guns which were allowed to be purchased from stores in Arizona.
Elsewhere in the segment, Alfonsi touted how Mexico only had one gun store in the entire country. “Like the U.S., Mexico`s constitution grants citizens the right to bear arms. But unlike the U.S., that right comes with a long list of restrictions,” she boasted. “There`s only one gun store in Mexico -- in the middle of a heavily guarded military base in Mexico City…But before customers can enter, they have to show proof they`ve passed psychological tests, drug screens, and extensive background checks.”
Again, as an ignorant liberal journalist, Alfonsi didn’t seem aware that the U.S. mandated background checks. The form also included drug use and mental evaluative questions. In fact, it was one of those questions that Hunter Biden lied on which led to him catching a felony charge, only to be pardon by his daddy, President Biden.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CBS’s 60 Minutes
December 22, 2024
8:02:10 p.m. EasternSHARYN ALFONSI: There`s been a lot of talk about stopping the flow of illegal immigration and drugs from Mexico. But few people are talking about another crisis at the border -- guns. Specifically, American guns.
An estimated 200,000 to half million U.S. firearms are smuggled into Mexico every year, part of what`s known as the "iron river."
Mexico says those American guns are responsible for much of the cartel violence that`s plagued its country. And now, it`s taking an unusual approach to try and stop it -- it`s suing.
The government of Mexico has filed lawsuits in U.S. courts against a handful of gun stores and one of the largest gun manufacturers in America.
It believes damning that "iron river" might also fix some of the problems that plague the U.S.
[Cuts to video]
JONATHAN LOWY: If you think fentanyl overdoses are a problem, if you think migration across the border is a problem, if you think the spread of organized crime is a problem in the United States, then you should care about stopping the crime gun pipeline to Mexico. And you need to stop it at its source. Because all those problems are driven by the supply of U.S. guns to the cartels.
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Jonathan Lowy is an American attorney who`s been battling the gun industry in court for 25 years.
Mexico asked Lowy to help devise its strategy to cut off the gun pipeline after one of the deadliest chapters in the country`s history that culminated with this --
(People speaking in foreign language)
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): -- 2019, Mexican armed forces captured one of the most wanted drug lords in the world, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, the son of the former Sinaloa cartel boss, known as El Chapo.
In their custody was the man, U.S. prosecutors say was largely responsible for the massive influx of fentanyl in the United States.
But what should have been a turning point in the war on drugs, turned into a deadly, five-hour gun battle with 600 cartel gunmen. That is a 50-caliber belt-fed rifle sourced from America. The cartel doused soldiers with gunfire, took hostages, and blocked entrances to the city, burning vehicles.
Outgunned, and hoping to end the bloodshed, Mexico`s president at the time, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, ordered Guzman to be released.
This past March, we spoke to then-President Lopez Obrador in Mexico City. Homicides and cartel violence soared during his six-year term. We were surprised who he said was partly to blame.
SHARYN ALFONSI: Where is the cartel getting their guns?
ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR (Through Translator): From the United States. We have confiscated, in the time that I`ve been in government, 50,000 guns of high power, of high caliber -- 50,000 guns. And 75 percent of them from the United States.
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Which is why, he said, his government was pursuing two civil lawsuits in U.S. courts seeking $10 billion for the damages U.S. guns have caused in Mexico.
The first, filed in 2021, included U.S. gun manufacturer, Smith & Wesson, and one of their wholesalers.
The other, filed a year later, against five U.S. gun stores for what Mexico claims are, quote, "reckless and unlawful business practices that supply dangerous criminals."
SHARYN ALFONSI: Is it the U.S.` responsibility to stop guns from getting in the hands of the cartel? Or is it the Mexican government`s responsibility to keep the guns out?
ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR (Through Translator): Of both. Of both governments. But there has to be cooperation. You cannot sell weapons to just anybody.
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Like the U.S., Mexico`s constitution grants citizens the right to bear arms. But unlike the U.S., that right comes with a long list of restrictions.
There`s only one gun store in Mexico -- in the middle of a heavily guarded military base in Mexico City. We were allowed in.
But before customers can enter, they have to show proof they`ve passed psychological tests, drug screens and extensive background checks.
The store sells about a thousand guns a month, mostly shotguns, small caliber rifles, and handguns. What civilians can`t buy here are the weapons the cartel favors. Those are not legally sold anywhere in Mexico.
TIM SLOAN: Cartels` favorite weapons are weapons of war -- belt feds, .50 caliber rifles, guns that you can shoot from a mile away. The more expensive, the more powerful, the sexier they think they are.
SHARYN ALFONSI: It`s a trophy.
TIM SLOAN: It is a trophy.
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Tim Sloan worked for the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, for 22 years. His last assignment was running the ATF`s four field offices in Mexico during some of the bloodiest years on record.
TIM SLOAN: It`s so easy --
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Part of his job was tracing the guns recovered at crime scenes. In 2019, one of those scenes was inside a cartel ranch near Guadalajara.
TIM SLOAN: There was dead bodies everywhere. There was a 14-year-old girl chopping up bodies. And so there were 55-gallon drums with body parts in them. It`s something that the human mind can almost not comprehend or fathom. And all the weapons in that house came from the United States. All of them. Every person there was murdered by a firearm purchased in the U.S. And so it was -- it made a very lasting impression on me.
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Sloan says most of the guns the ATF traced in Mexico were sold directly to traffickers or to so-called "straw purchasers," someone who buys a firearm on behalf of another person. In this case, Americans buying guns that, ultimately, end up in the hands of the cartel.
SHARYN ALFONSI: What did you learn during your time about how the cartel was getting these guns from the United States into Mexico?
TIM SLOAN: Well, I mean, it`s pretty easy, right? So it`s straw purchasers. You know, you`re offering a 23-year-old girl in Arizona $4,000, $5,000 just to go into a store and buy a gun for you. She`s going to do that. A lot of people are going to do that, especially if they have any addiction problems, but no criminal record.
SHARYN ALFONSI: Can you send a 24-year-old to go buy an AK-47?
TIM SLOAN: Oh, as many as they want. Five, 500, they can buy as many as they want, as long as they`re not prohibited.
SHARYN ALFONSI: And how do they get them into Mexico?
TIM SLOAN: Well, that`s the easy part. Just drive across the border.
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): That porous border works both ways. Over seven years, the ATF traced 50,000 American guns recovered in Mexico to gun dealers across the United States.
But Mexico`s lawsuit names just five dealers -- from one state -- Arizona. In Mexico City, attorney Alejandro Celorio spearheaded the lawsuits for the Mexican government.
ALEJANDRO CELORIO: We believe they`re liable for actively facilitating the trafficking of firearms that empower the cartels, the fentanyl crisis. A cartel without firearm is just a gang.
SHARYN ALFONSI: The five gun shops that you`ve named in Arizona, how did you choose those five gun shops?
ALEJANDRO CELORIO: It`s based off who do we believe are the bad actors in this dynamic.
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): It`s difficult to know which gun dealers could be, "bad actors" because U.S. law prohibits the ATF from publicly releasing specific gun trace information.
WOMAN #1: And with the ATF National Tracing Center --
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): But 60 MINUTES reviewed internal ATF and Mexican law enforcement documents. According to the documents, 566 guns recovered in Mexico over a four-and-a-half-year period were traced back to the Arizona gun dealers named in Mexico`s lawsuit.
And nearly 200 of the guns came from one dealer, Ammo AZ near Phoenix. Veerachart `Danger` Murphy is the store`s owner.
VEERACHART MURPHY: We sell guns here legally. We`ve been --
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Murphy declined to be interviewed by 60 MINUTES. But after Ammo AZ was named in Mexico`s lawsuit, he posted this response online.
VEERACHART MURPHY: If we were actually doing something illegal, ATF, FBI would have already shut us down and I would be in jail.
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): The ATF has said a crime gun trace does not necessarily indicate gun dealer wrongdoing.
JONATHAN LOWY: If you`re a dealer and you have reason to know that that person is a straw buyer or gun trafficker, it`s your legal obligation not to supply them with guns.
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Jonathan Lowy, who is Mexico`s co-counsel, has litigated gun cases in more than 40 states.
SHARYN ALFONSI: The gun shop owners we spoke to said, "Look, I`m running the background checks, I`m filling out the paperwork. I`m doing everything that I`m supposed to do. Isn`t that enough?"
JONATHAN LOWY: Absolutely not. The dealer`s main responsibility, in my view, is to pay attention to indicators to see if the person standing in front of them, on the other side of the counter, is a potential criminal or supplier to the criminal market.
SHARYN ALFONSI: The gun retailers say it`s really hard to know sometimes if somebody`s a straw buyer, right? That they come in with a good cover story and you have to believe them.
JONATHAN LOWY: It`s pretty obvious. I mean, you see these multiple sales of AR-15s. You see these large cash payments, you see these persons coming back to the store every few days or every few weeks. I mean, these are not normal buying patterns.
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): There are more than 75,000 licensed gun dealers in the United States, twice as many as U.S. post offices. Jonathan Lowy says most of those dealers are acting responsibly.
JONATHAN LOWY: About 90 percent of gun dealers sell zero-crime guns. I mean, that is a great mark for the gun industry. That shows that if you pay attention to these obvious indicators of trafficking and straw buying, you can actually stop supplying crime guns. The problem is these bad actors. And there`s no good reason why manufacturers don`t say, "Look, if you`re selling our guns, use best practices."
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Which is why Mexico filed its other lawsuit against gun manufacturer, Smith & Wesson.
Under U.S. law, gunmakers have typically been shielded from liability when one of their guns is used in a crime
But Mexico is arguing the manufacturer is "aiding and abetting" gun trafficking to the cartels. In court, Smith & Wesson called that allegation "not true." They did not respond to our request for comment.
SHARYN ALFONSI: How can you say manufacturers are responsible for anything when there are so many steps in the process between the time that they make it and it goes to the retailer, and then maybe it`s sold to somebody else or resold? How can you trace it back and say, "It`s the manufacturers."
JONATHAN LOWY: When manufacturers make the decision, "We`re going to sell guns through dealers no matter what their record is, no matter how many crime guns they`re selling," you know, that`s on them.
SHARYN ALFONSI: You say they know that the guns are going to the gun stores that are bad actors. How do they know
JONATHAN LOWY: Well, manufacturers, and dealers, and distributors all get trace data. That is when law enforcement recovers a gun in crime, they determine its commercial history. And every seller in every point of the chain knows that that`s a gun that they sold, that was recovered in crime.
SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): If Mexico`s lawsuit is successful, it could open the door for more lawsuits, foreign and domestic, against the gun industry.
Earlier this year, gun manufacturers successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to review the case.
They argued they could face years of costly litigation by another country that`s "trying to bully the industry into adopting a host of gun-control measures."
Three years after the deadly battle that ended with his release, fentanyl drug lord, Ovidio Guzman Lopez was finally recaptured in Sinaloa in 2023
His arrest sparked another gunfight that left 10 soldiers dead.
The violence continues today. In the last four months, cartel in-fighting has killed more than 500 people in Sinaloa.
According to documents obtained by 60 MINUTES, 47 guns were seized after Guzman`s capture, including an AK-47-style rifle traced back to one of the defendants in Mexico`s lawsuit -- Ammo AZ.
