(H/T @JamieDupree and @anthropocon)

In his remarks to Congress today, Mexican President Philipe Calderon repeated a lie we’ve heard before: That American guns are responsiblefor most of the violence in Mexico.

Calderon, citing his administration’s efforts to address the growing violence on the borderrelated to the drug trade, argued that the spike in violence resulted in part from the end of theassault weapons ban in 2004.

The Mexican president said his government is “facing organized crime with determination and courage. … However, there is one issue where Mexico needs your cooperation, and that is stopping the flow ofassault weapons and other deadly arms across the border.”

“Let me be clear on this. I fully respect, I admire the American Constitution,” Calderon said. “I understand that the purpose of the Second Amendment is to guarantee the right of good American citizens to defend themselves and their nation. … But believe me, many of these guns are not going to honest American hands. Instead hundreds are going to the hands of criminals,” Calderon said. “The violence in Mexico started to grow … in 2006. This coincides with the lifting of the assault weapons ban in 2004.”

No, it doesn’t “coincide” with the lifting of the “Assault Weapons” Ban. There was a gap of well over a year. The lie that Americans and/or Mexicans are buying guns and smuggling them over the Rio Grande was disproved last year. The kinds of weapons being used by the drug cartels simply aren’t available for sale in the US. Most of them haven’t been since 1986, and many were illegal long before that. President Calderon’s repetition of this lie in his remarks before the US Congress is both insulting and aggrivating.

As I mentioned yesterday in my post about President Obama’s remarks at the White House, the Mexican government, at all levels, is corrupt. The ethical, legal and moral violations common in much of Mexico make the the most disgustingly “corrupt” dealings in Washington look like the work of playful amateurs. This corruption makes it difficult for the common man to build wealth and provide for one’s family. It’s no wonder people are leaving Mexico by the tens of thousands each year to come find a more prosperous life in the United States.

Is this statement by President Calderon a result of him not educating himself to the facts that his own government has provided about cartel violence?

Yeah, I don’t think so either.

The disingenuous nature of President Calderon’s remarks has me wondering what is his real purpose? If American guns aren’t really showing up en masse at Mexican crime scenes, why is he pushing the meme? Is this a statist alliance, with Calderon scratching the backs of those who support “gun control” in the US in exchange for something else? Is he blaming the United States to take the heat off his own government for its failure to clean up the corruption and take out the cartels? Is it simply an insult aimed at conservatives, who largely oppose illegal immigration but who support the Second Amendment?

If we secure our own borders, the Mexican government will no longer be able to use the cop-out that American guns are killing Mexican citizens. Further, the Mexican people will be forced to deal with the crime and poverty that the corruption inherent in their government forces upon them. Maybe then we won’t have to deal with Mexican government officials insulting our culture, our laws, our history and our way of life.

Cross-posted at The Minority Report.