When you got drug gangs using RPG, Grenades, Machineguns, Fully Automatic Weapons, etc,. You know off the bat it didn't came from the USA. They either produce it or imported it south of their boarder

Well, as Fox News explains, it might have come from the USA if it's stuff that was either (A.) Supplied to the Mexican Army by the U.S. govt, or (B.) Stolen from the military (there are many Latino thugs in the U.S. who are enlisted in the Army and steal military hardware for the black market).

That being said, if I see PS90 carbines, Five-Seven pistols (which are popular weapons), or any gun which has features identifying it as a semi-auto civilian "assault weapon", then it's safe to assume it started out in the civilian market, at a licensed FFL.

You thinking too hard on the problem. There will always be a small number of arms that make it to Mexico from the USA. However, the vest majority of firearms are imported from Mexico or homemade by Mexican.

The Liberal News Media, Mexican Government and the ATF are dishonest. It simple as that.

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/04/0...an-gun-canard/

I still question the homemade assertions. There seems to be plenty of evidence that cartels purchase guns from both the intl. arms market and the U.S. civvie market, or steal them from govt. sources (exact percentages for each source are what's debatable). But homemade? Mexicans are not like Pashtun or Yemenis. There doesn't seem to be any empirical evidence that Mexicans build homemade guns.

Also, isn't "imported from Mexico" almost oxymoronic if they're in Mexico to begin with?

BTW, I was looking at a video on YouTube recently of UVF paramilitaries attending a gun lecture. The UVF used to make homemade copies of Sterling subguns, and they're really crude-looking. You can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZBQxKQo2cE

And this is in Northern Ireland, a place where (unlike Mexico) modern tooling would have been much more readily available. If Ulstermen and Irishmen build guns that look that crude, I can't imagine the Mexicans could make theirs a whole lot better (assuming they actually do make guns, which seems doubtful).

The problem with these people making homemade weapons they are fighters not craftsmen so their products come out looking like crap and work the same. The weapons made in Pakistan on the border are amazing who the quality is for being homemade. They are craftsmen and have pride in their work when making a firearm right down to put in the inspection stamps. All they use is hand tools and forges no CNC machines. They just take pride in their work.

Yeah, I've read about / seen pictures of the Pashtun (Pakistani) gunsmiths in NWFP and FATA. Those guys are really talented. There's a good article about that here:

http://www.newstatesman.com/travel/2...kistan-law-gun

(and that's a really close replica of an Armsel Striker the guy in the picture is building)

Only point is, I'm not sure the Mexicans are like the Pakistanis. Pakistanis are known well for being extremely skilled craftsmen (i.e. look at those rugs they make in Karachi by hand), so I'm not surprised that they can build perfect copies of AKs and other such weapons. But Mexicans aren't really known for that kind of craftsmanship.