– Bernd Debusmann is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. –
Last year, around 2,500 Mexicans died in the twin wars drug cartels are waging against each other and against the Mexican state, using weapons smuggled in from the United States. In the first 11 months of this year, the death toll was 5,367, according to the Mexican attorney general. Next year?
There is no end in sight. At least two of the lethal ingredients in the toxic brew that fuels Mexico’s ever-widening violence are unlikely to change: lax American gun laws and a Mexican border that barely controls north-south traffic. On many of the crossing points along the 2,000-mile frontier, travelers coming in from the United States, by car or on foot, are routinely waved through without even having to show identity papers.
Weak Mexican border controls rarely feature in official or academic reports on a problem that has prompted some experts and U.S. publications to wonder whether Mexico is a “failing state”. That’s the headline over a cover story on Mexico in the latest edition of the business magazine Forbes. Mexican officials reject the label.
But privately, they concede that Mexican authorities are doing a less-than-thorough job in searching and monitoring north-south traffic. They tend to point in the other direction, to the easy availability of guns in the United States, the armory of Mexico’s criminal mafias.
According to statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the agency charged with regulating the firearms industries, there are 9,161 licensed arms dealers in the four states bordering Mexico — California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Buyers from licensed establishments need to go through a background check and the serial numbers of their purchases can be traced.
No background checks and no paperwork is necessary for weapons traded between private citizens on the “secondary” market — gun shows, over the Internet, through classified advertisements. Around 40 percent of all gun sales in the United States, where private citizens own at least 200 million guns, are on the informal market, estimates the Violence Policy Center, a Washington-based group in favor of tougher gun controls.
How many guns are smuggled across the porous border? Nobody knows, and a frequently used figure of 2,000 every day appears to be more of an urban legend than an estimate based on evidence. It would amount to 730,000 smuggled guns a year.
Whatever the number, it is enough for the U.S. State Department, on its website, to advise citizens contemplating a visit to Mexico that “recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have taken on the characteristics of small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and, on occasion, grenades”.
AMONG WEAPONS OF CHOICE: COP KILLERS
Almost all the weapons seized inside Mexico or left at the scene of shootouts have been traced back to the United States through eTrace, an electronic system the ATF set up to trace illicit firearms. The cartel killers’ weapons of choice: AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles. Favorite pistols: Colt .38 Super, Glock 9 millimeter, and the FN 5-7, nicknamed “cop killer” because it can pierce a flak jacket at a range of 300 meters.
All these can be legally (and easily) acquired in the United States by citizens and legal residents without a criminal record, after a background check with the Federal Bureau of Investigations that often takes less than 15 minutes. The ease with which Americans can get arms flares into public controversy at regular intervals, usually after a gun owner with a grudge commits a massacre in a school or other public place.
Attempts to introduce more restrictions have failed regularly, and this year the Supreme Court ended decades of legal argument by ruling that the second amendment of the U.S. constitution, written 219 years ago, does guarantee an individual’s right “to keep and bear arms”.
Even Eduardo Medina Mora, the outspoken Mexican attorney general who makes no secret of his frustration with the flow of weapons from the north, seems resigned to the prospect that the United States will not change its gun laws to keep Mexico from sliding into deeper trouble.
“Although … it may seem absurd to us that a (U.S.) citizen can buy an AK-47, an AR-15, or a Barrett .50, it’s the law of the land,” he told the Spanish newspaper El Pais in November. The last item on his list is a sniper rifle that costs $8,650, weighs 30 pounds and can punch through an armored vehicle from a mile away.
On the U.S. side of the border, the ATF has just launched an advertising campaign in Arizona to remind citizens that buying guns on behalf of others — so called-straw purchases — carries penalties of up to 10 years in jail. Using straw buyers has been one of the cartels’ methods to evade background checks. Gun shows are another.
Just before entering Mexico, large signs at crossing points read: “Warning: Firearms and Ammunition Illegal in Mexico.” Chances that you are stopped and searched by Mexican officials are slim.
Reuters correspondent Tim Gaynor, author of a forthcoming book on the frontier (Midnight on the Line: The Secret Life of the U.S.-Mexico Border) reports: “In scores of crossings I have made to Mexico over several years, I have been stopped on just two or three occasions. Never once have I had my car searched. The odds are heavily in favor of the smugglers.”
Time for Mexico to start watching its border rather than pointing a finger at the United States?
You can contact the author at Debusmann@reuters.com. For previous columns by Bernd Debusmann, click here.
Sure. Why not? Watching borders definitely better than finger pointing.
Let's assume Mexico does as adequate a job watching the border as the US would do. . . what would happen? Drug Cartels quit the business for lack of fire power? If there were no high powered sophisticated guns there would be no cartels, right? Mobsters in America during the thirties had it so rough. No glocks, AK-47s or Barrett .50s. It's a wonder the mafia survived in America.
Perhaps a combination of the analyses behind *The Case for Piracy* *America's decades old failed drug war* and this column are in order. If we combined all three would we still be talking about the border?
Trackback
205 comments so far
Previous | 11 … | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | … 1 | Next
To poster german….You’re confused about where you are this is a republic, your thinking of some other country , right?
Lets see now;
Illegal alien comes to America…Crime 1
Illegal alien brings drugs…….Crime 2
Illegal alien gets gun (stolen)..Crime 3
Illegal alien takes gun home…..Crime 4
American crimes….0
Mexican crimes…..4
Looks like a Mexican problem,maybe Mexico should close the border.
Another impotent European whining about the woes of America….that’s rich
Read the following Jimbo, then google “Armed Citizen” for hundreds more, in answer to your #11. And remember most self defense actions with guns (1-2 million per year) occur without a shot ever being fired. If I had the time I could refute each one of your other foolish assertions, Read and learn:
“It’s kind of a blur, ” recalls Robert Smotherman of his life’s most terrifying moment. As he pulled into his driveway, two men wearing ski masks and carrying rifles ran around the corner and demanded his valuables. “I had a gun on me,” recalls Smotherman, a concealed-carry permit holder. “[They] hesitated, and I took the opportunity.” Police said Smotherman fired eight shots from his .45-caliber pistol, striking at least one of the suspects several times and causing both to flee. “I just took my gut reaction and went with my first instinct,” he explained. The wounded suspect was apprehended; his accomplice is being sought. (Bradenton Herald, Bradenton, FL, 09/14/08)
I think most of the people posting here negative comments spouting their right wing gun-hugger nonsense, miss key points, first the US is a major producer of firearms, this means responsibility for who gets these weapons regardless of whether it is inside the country or out, two as the most powerful country in the world both economically and militarily, every oversight has repercussions around the world, and as a democracy that means you the citizens are responsible for what it does. So, in effect it is not the fault of the US that horrible things happen but as the saying goes evil triumphs when good people do nothing.
Boring!! Here we go again! Same old same old; another lefty Pinko generating another insane reason why the people of the United States should no longer be allowed to own guns. Obama has you stoked huh? Why dont these people move? Move to China or Cuba and now Venezuela too; move and enjoy your restrictions!
Excuse me, correction. 10. How to avoid being killed by a knife? Run the other way.
1. One man’s government oppression is another man’s government enforcement of the law.
2. The Supreme Court case one commenter referred to was 5:4 compared to every other Supreme Court case on the 2nd
Amendment which were all unanimous the other way. And those 5, three were on the majority side in Bush v. Gore while the other two would likely have been there too, so don’t put much weight behind their opinion. Only one federal appeals circuit went the way of this Court’s majority, the one based in Texas (naturally); all others went the other way. And I’m not surprised this Court went the way it did given Scalia’s personal interest in firearms which may have determined his vote in the case. And if you read the opinion drafted by Scalia you should have noticed that he closely analyzed every part of the dependent clause of the 2nd amendment except “being necessary”, most likely because including that phrase would have called the rest of his opinion into doubt.
3. Are you just as angry when Fox’s commentators put out their opinions without bothering to back them up with hard facts? If not you’re applying a double standard.
4. Vermont is not part of the Southern gun culture as is Texas, so no wonder they don’t kill each other with the abandon Texans and other southerners do. They don’t carry as often as the one commenter implied.
5. So it’s politically correct to blame the US for all these troubles? But over what country do we have direct control but the US? If we can’t determine what other countries do at least we can control what goes on in our own, and suggesting the other countries come up to our standards for them is patronizing as well as impossible so it’s pointless to point our finger at them. I’d guess this is something all the legalization of drugs folks believe sotto voce.
6. Why aren’t the same numbers killed in the US as in Mexico? Perhaps we have better cops and a better justice and penal system (as many lead heads on this thread acknowledge) as well as simply a greater regard for human life.
7. Plea bargains are necessary in the US justice system because there isn’t always enough good evidence to convict someone in a trial or enough resources (i.e. tax $) in the system to fully investigate crimes. If you don’t like it then by all means volunteer more of your $ to the government.
8. Just because Mexican narcos could obtain firearms and ammo from sources other than the US is no excuse for not trying to limit the flow of these two from the US to Mexico. It’s the only one we have direct control over, if we choose to exercise it.
9. Yes the US has strict laws against possession of full auto assault rifles but that ignores now easy it is to convert the civilian versions of AK-47s and M-16s to their military versions. I had a neighbor when I was a kid who was sent to prison for dealing in conversion kits.
10. How to avoid being killed by a gun? Run the other way. Far easier to do than run from a bullet which travels faster than anyone I know of.
11. If a robber had a gun on you and you began pulling yours, don’t you think he’d just shoot you instead of waiting for you to draw down on him? Kind of refutes the “self-defense to armed robbery” excuse which is why nobody acknowledges it. Thus how is packing a concealed weapon a deterrent to armed robbery?
12. Nobody has really refuted Norm’s statistics; they’ve only chosen to disbelieve them.
Let me think, Drug Cartel’s with unlimited money and sumggling prowness can only buy guns in America? they could not buy guns from any where else? Do you think anyone belives the crap in this article? SEAL THE BORDER, rmemember whan Nixon did it?
When does Mexico not point the finger north concerning its woes?
The writer seems to be spouting the tired old anti-gun rhetoric that permeates the major media types. From all statistical indications, what would most improve the Mexican situation would be (1) the right for Mexicans to keep and bear arms to protect them from the drug cartels and their corrupt government and (2) the decriminalization of drugs in the US and Mexico to collapse the lucrative black market that spawns the illicit drug industry. Underlying these suggestions is an old concept that escapes the media elite but is validated by a simple review of history: individual freedom is good — government oppression is bad.
Usually we think of the border problem as “drugs/illegals” coming north, not “Guns going south” My father spends a lot of time in West Texas near the border giving tours on historical cave painting sites, he has repeatedly commented to me on the massive build up of the US Border Patrol, and has talked to several agents who have told him about shootouts they have been in or cleaned up after (think No Country For Old Men)
Gun ownership is such a touchy issue for Americans,heck, I own a ww2 soviet sniper rifle, 2 shotguns, a .22, and a .45, but then again I live in TX. I still don’t think that the framers of the constitution had in mind the military grade fire arms that I can easily purchase (and potentially illicitly re-sell) when they added the bill of rights. They had no way of knowing the future development of firearms. Remember that in the late 1700s all long-arms were breach loading muskets, the only difference between military and civilian was (possibly) the size of the musket ball. So I take the 2nd amendment wackos at their word: “surprise surprise surprise we get an anti gun sociolist ready to take orfice an all the anti gun sociolist come out of the wood work -Walley” (posted as a comment on this column) and yet I own guns, not one, but several… it is a conundrum. Perhaps it has something to do with being raised in the outdoors, perhaps it is because I am a Texan, who knows.
Is there an “easy fix” to the problem on the border? Sure, ban and destroy all privately owned assault rifles. That would of course cause a new civil war so… Perhaps massively expand the border patrol and ATF’s authority? Hmm, you’d get right wingers bitching about invasive gov’t. Possibly give Mexico a bunch of logistical and material support? I just don’t know, interesting problem though.
So, let me get this straight:
According to the story “… Mexican authorities are doing a less-than-thorough job in searching and monitoring north-south traffic.” (i.e. Mexico has “weak” border controls) and U.S. gun control laws are the problem…??
Okaaaay…
only 8000? shucks
CT Smith’s response to the statistics I gave on page 6 comparing gun crime between the USA and the UK needs addressing. The figure for knife crime in the UK as recorded by police is about 22,000 (2008). The figure that was used to suggest knife crime is high in the UK was arrived at by a survey that ‘questioned’ only 47,000 people and multiplied the result by 1,200 to suggest a figure for the nation. (The likelihood of exaggeration by such a method is of course very high.) The statistics I gave are based upon officially recorded incidents.
Based upon official figures, gun crime is the US is 10 times that of the UK (that is ‘per capita’). In the UK, hospital treatment to victims of assault with a sharp object was recorded as 5,455 in 2006-07 (Home Office, UK figures). The ease of availability of guns is one of the chief problems that must be addressed. Yes, thieves may resort to using knives if they can’t get a gun - but the preferred criminal’s weapon is the gun!
Surely this must tell you something! Mexico must take all measures to disarm as far as possible all private citizens and must seriously declare war on the drug dealers and gun smugglers. If only the USA could have the will to do the same!
Mr. Debusmann,
How much research did you do before writing your article? I read it 3 times and came to the conclusion each time that it wasn’t very much. Our “lax american gun laws” as you put it is anything but. I suggest you look up 22USC2778-ARMS EXPORT CONTROL ACT & 22CFR120-130 INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC IN ARMS REGULATIONS via the website http://www.pmddtc.state.gov as it covers those very firearms you are talking about.
To permanently export a firearm (other than a sporting shotgun which falls under the jurisdiction of the Dept of Commerce-Bureau of Industry & Security) you first need to register with the Dept of State-Directorate of Defense Trade Controls as an exporter/manufacturer/etc. After that you must apply for a DSP05-Permanent Export License for those item(s) which you will have to show an import permit from the country it is going to.
After this the exporter (or their designated agent) must lodge the DSP05 license with US Customs & Border Protection prior to filing AES (Automated Export System) http://www.aes.gov and must get a “green light” so to speak to export said firearms & related equipment/accessories.
US Customs & Border Protection (www.cbp.gov) under “Operation EXODUS” and Immigration & Customs Enforcement (www.ice.gov) under “Project SHIELD AMERICA” enforce both the AECA & the ITAR. BATFE does require that a ATF Form 9 be used if the exporter wishes to have the transfer tax waived.
As you can see I have taken the time to do a little research from internet based websites so I accept no excuses that you did not do the same. I highly suggest you do more research before showing your ignorance to the world on US gun laws and regulations, especially those that apply to the permanent export of same.
So Mexico can’t close it’s northern border. Sounds like the author feel that it maybe should be close by the U.S.?
Let’s get to the nut of the issue. Debusmann does not know what he is talking about. That is undeniably clear. But his editorials are published anyway.
Reuters pays him to express his opinions and distributes them. But hides behind a disclaimer “his opinions are his own”. Reuter’s completely absolve themselves of responsibility to do any fact checking and will therefore publish lies, half truths, misleading statistics, etc without the slightest twinge of ethical conscience.
No that isn’t it at all, Reuter’s knows this editorial is grossly inaccurate. The reality is that this IS THERE POSITION. No ethical, professional publication would print such error filled drivel unless it was completely in accord with the stated position. Folks, the problem isn’t the writer, jerks like him will always be around. It’s the publisher who disseminates the propaganda. The behind the scenes instigator of the myths and falsifications. I almost never read an editorial published in Reuter’s. This one is a good example supporting my decision. It will be a long time before I make the same mistake.
Are you kidding? If the availability of American guns were the problem, then the massive spike in violence would be in America, not in Mexico.
This article suggests that we are somehow able to export massive death rates to a neighboring country, without having that same issue here. If these guns are being sold and distributed, by legal US citizens, to criminals, how do we guarantee that the bad guys will only use them in Mexico and not in America.
Perhaps the bad guys promise to do so and ‘crossies’ don’t count.
Remember, ‘Liberals is dumb’
surprise surprise surprise we get an anti gun sociolist ready to take orfice an all the anti gun sociolist come out of the wood work an write why we need more laws against guns
maybe you sociolst need to look at history an see thats how hitler took office
maybe you need to spend more time looking at the ponzi scheme you call sociol secruity
do your job an write