MEXICO CITY (AP) - President Barack Obama says he prefers to focus on enforcing existing laws to keep assault weapons out of Mexico, rather than trying to renew a U.S. ban on the weapons.
Obama says he still believes such a ban made sense. The most recent one expired in 1994.
But he says he’d rather enforce laws on the books that make it illegal to send assault weapons across the Mexican border.
Guns flowing into Mexico from the U.S. have been fingered in a rise in killings by Mexican drug cartels.
As a presidential candidate, Obama promised to push to reinstate the ban. He now says doing so would be politically difficult.
Obama commented in Mexico City at a news conference with President Felipe Calderon after their meeting.
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