This ad for Colt pistols would be more accurate if it read “OFTEN IMPLICATED.”

The Stop US Arms to Mexico project, a joint effort of Global Exchange and the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights coordinated by John Lindsay-Poland, is working to reduce both US legal arms sales and illegal gun trafficking to México. Guns from the US, the project notes, have become “a central contributor to growing violence experienced by communities and migrants in Mexico.” The AMLO administration last week moved against that gun trafficking. Stop US Arms to Mexico has offered this analysis of that move.

Lawsuit is step in the right direction, but more needed, say experts

August 4, 2021

The Mexican government filed suit in federal court today against a dozen U.S. gun manufacturers whose weapons have been used in thousands of homicides and other violent crimes in Mexico.

“The Mexican government’s legal action is a positive and important step, making gun production companies responsible for distributing military-grade guns to businesses with bad records of selling guns to criminals or others involved in illegal trafficking,” said Marco Castillo, co-director of Global Exchange.

More than 70 percent of all firearms recovered and traced from crime scenes in Mexico came from the United States, according to official U.S. data.   

At the same time, the violence crisis in Mexico goes beyond illegal trafficking. Police and military officers receive legally exported U.S. weapons that have been used to commit human rights violations and crimes, including the disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, the massacre of 19 migrants in Camargo, Tamaulipas earlier this year, and many more documented tragedies in Mexico...

“Without civilian oversight of México’s gun registry and a civilian counterpart to the Mexican army, the movement of guns in México will continue to be a black box,” according to Castillo. “The Army has complete control over information on gun imports, national production and sales to police and private individuals, as well as over missing and stolen firearms. This lack of transparency is unsafe and worrisome, since many crimes are committed with guns stolen from the military”. 

We call on both the Mexican and U.S. governments to carry out a regional strategy to address the crisis of cross-border gun transfers and violence.