Arizona has the most lax gun laws in the country and with that comes stories like this (via Politics in the Zeros):

The seizure of more than 700 guns and the indictments of 34 people announced on Tuesday are further confirmation that Arizona has become an iron highway for weapons into Mexico, according to federal authorities.

Many legal purchases by straw buyers at Arizona gun stores are being financed and orchestrated by Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, federal officials said.

The cases announced Tuesday involved the purchases of many AK-47s, .50-caliber rifles and other semiautomatic weapons in single-day transactions at gun stores by straw buyers paid by the cartel, U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke said.

Now let’s delve into the mind of a Republican on this.

• We should spend billions to wall off Mexico and the increased drug violence is a perfect reason for this.
• We should make guns easier to buy. Hell they should give them out with Happy Meals!
• We need to really cut taxes and government spending, which would also include law enforcement.
• The easy access to guns in Arizona isn’t the problem, it’s the people buying them for illegal purposes.

Of course the last two go hand in hand. The GOP wants to keep downsizing, and while 34 people were arrested, how many are still out there getting away with it? Without increases in law enforcement, which in turn costs big money, we’ll have no way of stopping this. The most conservative approach to help limit this would be to limit access to guns. Of course the GOP has nothing to do with conservatism – they only focus on idealism. Sometimes idealism and reality just don’t see eye to eye.