Wednesday, May 6, 2009

AR-15s In .50-BMG Spotted In Mexico

New AP story on Mexican gun smuggling interviews the Mexican Army officer in charge of warehousing the seized weapons, Gen. Antonio Erasto Monsivais.

Thirty percent of AK-47 assault rifles seized have been modified to become fully automatic. He said about three of every 1,000 AR-15 assault rifles have been modified to take .50-caliber bullets, the kind of high-powered ammunition designed for sniper rifles.


The Mexican Government is never going to give the U.S. press unrestricted access to the seized weapons because to do so would probably be very embarrassing; the single largest source would probably turn out to be the Mexican gov't itself, through desertions, theft and official corruption. With retail sales in the U.S. a very distant second.

The good general may be an honorable man, I don't know. But I can't stop thinking about the Mexican General in the movie Traffic, who was playing both sides against the middle, and taking money from all the players. What's Spanish for chutzpah?



Link.

[Edited to add photo of Tomas Milian playing Gen. Arturo Salazar in Traffic.]

5 comments:

drjim said...

Uhhhhhh....is it even possible to modify an AR-15 to fire 50BMG?

Turk Turon said...

I'm no expert, but I'm thinking "no".

Maybe you could make one using some parts from an AR-15 ... you know, like the pistol grip or the trigger. But converting or modifying an AR-15 to fire the .50-BMG?

BobG said...

Hell, even if it was possible to convert an AR-15 to 50BMG (and I tend to disbelieve it), could you imagine "spraying from the hip" the way all the hoplophobes think people shoot automatic weapons? I'm thinking something that light would pound the bejesus out of a person.

Don said...

I'm sure it's a perfectly honest mistake. The cartels probably just use a lot of .50 Beowulf uppers.

Or not.

Bob said...

Viva Yo is probably the Spanish equivalent of chutzpah. It literally means "hooray for me" and, by implication, "fuck you."