Guns over Butter

"I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military."
William S. Burroughs

They say that Mexico has some of strictest gun laws in the world, yet everyone with bad intentions is armed to the teeth. Mexico is the poster child for every argument ever raised by the NRA. If you take firearms away from ordinary citizens then only criminals will have guns. That scenario doesn't always apply in Mexico where the distinction between outlaws and law enforcement does get blurred.

El Presidente de Mexico likes to shake his finger at the great Satan to the north and cry foul.  But, we are no more responsible for Mexico's love affair with firearms, death cult obsessions and brutish tendencies than they are of our love for getting high.  We send Mexico guns and they send us marijuana, coca & chiva, and that is what passes for a Mexican standoff these days. 

"Ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State."

The calm of a late August morning was broken by the sound of helicopters taking off from the Deming airport. With doors open and legs & rifles poking out, the copters flew in a loop and landed less than 4 miles away.  It was a glorious display of  Homeland Security "cowboy up" law enforcement. Their target was the home of Rick & Terry Reese, who operate a business known as New Deal Shooting Sports.

It was a splashy take down for the Border Task Force, they're great at making lots of noise, while getting minimal results from their investigations. The entire Reese family was already under custody, having been arrested without incident at their unopened Las Cruces gun shop earlier that morning. The only thing missing from the picture other than a perp walk was "Ride of the Valkyries" pouring out from speakers mounted on the helicopters.

This impressive force, labeled "Bad Deal" touched down at the Reese family's fortified compound located south of Deming. The property site is off the grid, with electricity provided by power generators and water pumped up by a windmill. On site, officials discovered a weapons bunker under the gun shop along with a vast cache of arms and ammunition. Rick Reese an avowed survivalist has longed preached self sufficiency along with his anti-federalist rhetoric.

 At first whiff, entrapment smells just like victory

Mr. & Mrs. Reese along with their sons Ryin & Remington had been targeted by federal authorities for a number of violations involving the illegal trafficking of firearms, money laundering and falsifying sales records. The Federal indictment alleges that Rick Reese, Terry Reese or more specifically Ryin and Remington sold numerous AK47 rifles, AR-15 rifles, a pair of .50 caliber rifles, several handguns and over 7000 rounds of ammo, to undercover agents or informants. 

The weapons were sold with the full knowledge that they would be smuggled into Mexico for use by drug cartels. A fact ignored by Luna County Tea Party hacks who are leading a grassroots effort to exonerate the family.  Signs along Rockhound Road, where their home & business are located proclaim, "Bring The Reese Family Home!"  A few people around these parts send clothing and food across the border, Rick Reese chose to send guns and bullets.