Calderon: Bring Back the Assault Weapons Ban

In an address to a joint session of Congress, Mexican President Felipe Calderon pressed for a return of the assault weapons ban:

Acknowledging the sensitivity of gun rights issues in the United States, the Harvard-educated Calderon said the violence and lethality of Mexico’s drug war significantly increased after the U.S. assault weapons ban expired a couple years before he took office.

“I fully understand the political sensitivity of this issue,” Calderon said to applause. “But I ask Congress to help us with this and to understand how important it is that you enforce current laws to stem the supply to criminals and consider reinstating assault weapon ban.”

Some 24,000 people have been killed in Mexican drug violence since Calderon took office in December 2006.

Describing more than 7,000 gun shops along the U.S. border with Mexico “where almost anyone can purchase these powerful weapons,” Calderon said more than 80% of the weapons seized by Mexican authorities the past three years came from the United States.

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