Mexican cartels want to buy these U.S. rifles

Federal authorities say a Mexican drug cartel is sending buyers with cash into North Texas to acquire as many high-powered rifles as possible for use in its ongoing wars with rivals and Mexican security forces. Here are two primary weapons they have sought. The FN M249S: This is the civilian version of the belt-fed FN M249 SAW, which the U.S. military has used since the 1980s. That automatic version of the rifle can fire over 100 rounds in less than a minute. The civilian model is semi-automatic and allows the shooter to fire continuously using connecting ammunition belts that feed into the rifle. Semi-automatic means each trigger pull fires one round. The M249S has an effective range of at least seven football fields. It uses the 5.56 caliber bullet like the popular AR-15 rifle.

The Barrett .50 caliber: Sometimes referred to as a sniper rifle, the Barrett .50 caliber shoots rounds that are five to 10 times larger than those used in the AR-15 and AK-47, according to Mexico’s lawsuit against U.S. gun manufacturers. The bullet and cartridge together are about 5.5 inches in length. The Mexican government is suing Barrett Firearms and other U.S. gun manufacturers in federal court, alleging they are causing harm by arming Mexican drug cartels. The company denies the allegations. The nonprofit Violence Policy Center, which seeks solutions to death and violence, says the Barrett .50 caliber can blast through 2 inches of solid concrete at a range of about 200 yards. The Center said an excerpt from the U.S. Army’s manual on urban combat assessed the .50 caliber this way: “It is their ability to shoot through all but the heaviest shielding material, and their devastating effects, that make them valuable psychological weapons.” U.S. armed forces used the military version of the rifle during combat operations in Kuwait and Iraq, primarily to target “personnel, bunkers, vehicles, aircraft, and other military targets at long range,” a 1999 Government Accountability Office report said.