In one of his books, Robert Heinlein describes three ways to lie. One is to just make something up, like Bill Richardson saying he was drafted by a professional baseball team. Another it to tell the truth, but so unconvincingly that no one believes what you are saying. The third is to tell the truth, but not all of it. Which is what politicians do all the time.

Here is a recent example,

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reports that up to 95 percent of guns seized at scenes of drug violence in Mexico can be traced to U.S. commercial sources. These weapons are increasingly higher-powered, including .50 caliber rifles and armor-piercing ammunition.

Here is the entire article so you can have the context,

Border boss: U.S. ready for border drug war

Sounds pretty bad, even to me. There is one problem though. The ATF can only trace a small percentage of all the guns seized in Mexico. Specifically, the ones the Mexican government provides serial numbers for. Oh, they also have to have been sold in the US commercially. Any weapons that were produced in the US, but sold internationally, say to the Mexican government, aren’t traceable by the ATF. Nor are any foreign made weapons, including AK-47s from China, Russia, any former Soviet Bloc nations, or anywhere else.

So now comes, as the late Paul Harvey was wont to say, THE REST OF THE STORY.

The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.

It will surprise many of my readers to know I’m not a big fan of Fox News. Most of what they do and most of their talking heads are full of hyperbole. Or fluff if you watch the morning shows. However, between about 3:00-7:00PM they have some solid news. Except for Shepard Smith, but I digress.

While 90 percent of the guns traced to the U.S. actually originated in the United States, the percent traced to the U.S. is only about 17 percent of the total number of guns reaching Mexico.

So, 83% of the weapons seized by Mexican authorities are not traced for the reasons I mentioned above. As well as other reasons, no doubt.

“Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market,” Matt Allen, special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told FOX News.

Then there is this,

Ed Head, a firearms instructor in Arizona who spent 24 years with the U.S. Border Patrol, recently displayed an array of weapons considered “assault rifles” that are similar to those recovered in Mexico, but are unavailable for sale in the U.S.

“These kinds of guns — the auto versions of these guns — they are not coming from El Paso,” he said. “They are coming from other sources. They are brought in from Guatemala. They are brought in from places like China. They are being diverted from the military. But you don’t get these guns from the U.S.”

The narrative from the politicians and the Lame Stream Media is consistent and consistently dishonest. The goal is NOT to stem the flow of guns into Mexico. The goal is NOT to stop the violence in Mexico, about which none of them give a shit. The goal is NOT to stop the flow of drugs into America. The goal IS to pass more restrictive gun control laws in the US that will only effect law abiding citizens. Make no mistake about this, the left hated the Heller decision and is going to to everything possible to gut it. Just as they are lying to us about the economic crisis and what is necessary to “fix” it, this is a cynical ploy to extend even more government intrusion into our lives and curtail our liberty.

Don’t believe it for one second.