The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report last week summarizing the United States’ part in firearm smuggling to Mexico called "Firearms Trafficking: U.S. Efforts to Combat Arms Trafficking to Mexico Face Planning and Coordination Challenges."

Despite recent reports disputing the number of illegal firearms trafficked across the border into Mexico, the GAO report stated that about 87 percent of firearms seized in Mexico and traced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the last five years originated in the United States.

However, the report states that the ATF only traces a fraction of the illegal firearms seized by Mexican officials.

A press release by the NRA-ILA sheds more light on the GAO’s report. “‘According to U.S. and Mexican government officials, these firearms have been increasingly more powerful and lethal in recent years.  For example, many of these firearms are high-caliber and high-powered, such as AK and AR-15 type semiautomatic rifles.’ The report, however, states that about 25 percent of firearms traced were of that type, which works out to only eight percent of all firearms seized.  Also, the report does not indicate what percentage of murders is committed with various types of firearms, but it does note, ‘The majority of the casualties have been individuals involved in the drug trade in some way.’”

At hearings earlier this year, representatives from the ATF, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement testified that the violence in Mexico and the relationship between the United States and illegal firearms has been misinterpreted by politicians and the media.