MEXICO CITY — President Obama pledged Thursday that the U.S. would become a better partner in curbing the flow of arms that have aggravated a bloody drug war in Mexico, but acknowledged that political realities make it tough for him to ban some of the most potent weapons in the arsenals of drug cartels.
Emerging from a meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Obama said he favored a ban on assault weapons but would not push to reimpose a U.S. prohibition that lapsed in 2004.
"None of us is under any illusion that reinstating that ban would be easy," Obama said at a news conference after talks that dealt in part with the violence that has swept sections of Mexico.
Instead, he announced plans to increase the number of U.S. law enforcement personnel at the border to search for smuggled shipments of guns, even in southbound trains. He also said he would push the Senate to ratify a decade-old treaty on arms trafficking as part of a concerted U.S.-Mexican effort to defeat drug gangs.
But despite Obama's high approval ratings and solid Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, his comments indicated that the political clout of gun rights advocates, including many Republicans as well as conservative Democrats, made it doubtful he could resurrect an assault gun ban.
Congress enacted such a ban in 1994, but it expired after 10 years. In 2004, when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) proposed an extension, it was voted down, 90 to 8.
Mexican officials have made it clear they want the ban reenacted. But Obama, as he stood beside Calderon, said other measures would have to suffice.
When it was his turn to answer the assault weapons question, Calderon struck a patient tone and said he grasped the nuances involved. His government has seized 16,000 assault weapons since he took office in December 2006. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says 90% of weapons seized in Mexico and reported to the agency can be traced to the United States.
"We understand that this is politically very sensitive because we know the great esteem Americans have for their constitutional rights, especially those contained in the 2nd Amendment," Calderon said.
But he cautioned that the widespread violence plaguing Mexico may spill into the U.S.
