BOSTON, June 19 (UPI) -- Fresh evidence that high-powered U.S. firearms are behind much of the Mexican drug violence isn't likely to change America's gun-control policy, experts say
A Government Accountability Office report says 87 percent of guns Mexican officials seize and turn over to U.S. authorities come from America. Many firearms used to kill thousands of police and government officials in Mexico come from gun shops and gun shows in Southwest border states, the GAO said.
But critics told The Christian Science Monitor the report covers no new ground and appears to be an attempt to "embarrass Republicans for their ties to the NRA," in the words of Bill Vizzard, a criminologist at the California State University in Sacramento.
Vizzard viewed the report as a product of Democrats' desire to mollify Mexican leaders, confronting rampant violence as police battle drug cartels.
The report acknowledges data gaps and says U.S. and Mexican authorities share blame for the gun violence because of weak regulation of privately sold firearms in the U.S. and corruption in Mexico.
The Monitor said that a landmark Supreme Court decision last year affirming Second Amendment gun rights has left Democratic leaders unwilling to press for gun control nationally.
