For the past couple weeks we've heard the statistics that "90% of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States." That just didn't sound right to me. This FoxNews story suggests that I was right to be suspicious.

You've heard this shocking "fact" before -- on TV and radio, in newspapers, on the Internet and from the highest politicians in the land: 90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States.

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it to reporters on a flight to Mexico City.
• CBS newsman Bob Schieffer referred to it while interviewing President Obama.
• California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at a Senate hearing: "It is unacceptable to have 90 percent of the guns that are picked up in Mexico and used to shoot judges, police officers and mayors ... come from the United States."
• William Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified in the House of Representatives that "there is more than enough evidence to indicate that over 90 percent of the firearms that have either been recovered in, or interdicted in transport to Mexico, originated from various sources within the United States."

There's just one problem with the 90 percent "statistic" and it's a big one:

It's just not true.

In fact, it's not even close. By all accounts, it's probably around 17 percent.

What's true, an ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency's assistant director, "is that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S."

But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.

There are plenty of good reasons to secure our Southern border, but guns flowing from the US into Mexico wouldn't be at the top of my list. I'm much more concerned about the flow of illegal aliens, drugs, terrorists and explosives from Mexico into the United States. Let's close the border to those things and that additional security will help close the border to those weapons that are trying to go South.