Obama Repeats '90 Percent' Stat for U.S. Guns Recovered in Mexico

What's the difference between "recovered" and "traceable" when it comes to firearms seized in Mexico's bloody war against drug cartels?

The White House says none.

I say there is, and President Obama, by all accounts a very bright attorney, knows it. The only reason to use "recovered" when the proper word is "traced" is to mislead the American people into believing the 90% "recovered" he is referring to is the 90% of the 29,000 firearms recovered by the Mexican government rather than the 90% of the 6,000 firearms "traced" by the BATFE to U. S. sources. Ninety percent of 29,000 is much more impressive than 90% of 6,000.

Another fact that is missing from this equation is whether those guns "traced" came from U. S. gun shops or U. S. weapons exports to Mexico. It probably wouldn't help his argument to admit the guns traced to the U. S. came from supplies sold to the Mexican government any more than than it would to admit that the guns traced total only 5,114 or 17.6 of those "recovered".

Update: FactCheck.org, claims the 5114 number used by Fox is a subset of a larger number, and the 17.6% is incorrect. The claim the correct number is 10,347 traced to U. S. sources. That puts the percentage at 36%. That doesn't invalidate my points. Obama is using disinformation to push his agenda and no one has identified whether the U. S. sources are gun shops/shows or exports.