There are only two gun stores in Mexico, and both are located on military bases. Yet the country still suffers from a major gun homicide problem. So where are the guns coming from?
In 2015, a Mexican military helicopter was shot down by cartel fighters using a Browning machine gun and a Barrett .50-caliber rifle. Both weapons were traced back to legal purchases in U.S. gun shops. This stark example highlights a brutal reality: Mexico’s gun violence crisis is fueled by American guns.
Mexico’s biggest challenge is that it shares a border with a country where almost anyone can legally purchase a gun. A significant number of these firearms are then trafficked across the border, primarily into the hands of violent drug cartels. According to The Conversation, an estimated 135,000 guns are smuggled annually from the U.S. into Mexico.
The Conversation, in Mexican drug cartels use hundreds of thousands of guns bought from licensed US gun shops, has been investigating the flow of illicit weapons trafficked from the U.S. to Mexico. The map at the top of this post shows that the majority of the firearms trafficked to Mexico came from cities and small towns that are close to the Mexican border. The article also features an interactive map showing the widespread presence of drug cartels across Mexico. This visual data underscores that trafficked American guns are contributing to violence in nearly every region of the country.
The gun violence crisis in Mexico cannot be fully understood without acknowledging the role of the United States as a major source of illicit firearms. While Mexico maintains some of the strictest gun control laws in the world, they are undermined by the easy availability of weapons just across the border. This cross-border flow of guns from the United States empowers criminal organizations, destabilizes communities, and fuels a cycle of violence that affects both nations.
No comments:
Post a Comment