70% of Guns Seized in Mexico Come From US

A whopping 70% of guns seized in Mexico in 2009 and 2010 came from the United States, according to figures from the ATF. Of the 29,284 firearms recovered by authorities during that time, 15,131 were made in the US and another 5,373 were foreign guns that moved through the US to Mexico. The ATF, which submitted the guns to a US gun-tracing program, doesn’t know where the other 8,780 arms came from.

Despite the high percentage, it’s still down from the 87% cited in a June 2009 report. That could be in part because these figures included more gun-trace reports, the AP notes. The numbers were submitted to US senators, who issued a report recommending safety measures including background checks for sales at gun shows and the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban. Mexican President Felipe Calderon accused the US weapons industry Saturday of “the deaths of thousands of people that are occurring in Mexico.” Click for more on a new activist group that feels similarly. (More Mexico drug war stories.)