Reuters reports that 147 AK-47 rifles have been seized in Texas.

Acting on a tip, police in the border city of Laredo stopped a truck on Saturday and found the AK-47 rifles, along with more than 200 high-capacity magazines, bayonets and 10,000 rounds of ammunition, Laredo police told reporters.

This news item brings to mind the speech by President Calderon of Mexico last May to the US Congress. He said 75,000 weapons had been seized since 2007 and 80% of them were traced to the US. He was making an appeal to reconsider the Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) enacted in 1994 by President Clinton (under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act) and allowed to expire in 2004, during the Bush presidency.

Although the US Congress has debated several versions of a new AWB since 2004, none have passed. President Obama has hinted that he now wants the US to support CIFTA (Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and other Related Items) more than another AWB. The news of this raid will surely help that effort.