Made in the U.S.A.: The Role of American Guns in Mexican Violence

[melm00se]

17. let's read the article with a critical eye

In an economic study conducted by the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute and the Brazil-based Igarapé Institute

which they conveniently don't provide a link to so that study (nor the title for the study so it can be searched out) can be evaluated for methodology and bias. the casual reader is just left to take their word for it.

we hypothesized that if the volume of the trade was significant

We conservatively estimate that about 2.2 percent of total demand for U.S.-sold firearms originated south of the border between 2010 and 2012.

it is the equivalent of an annual average of 252,000 guns crossing the border

Note all the conjecture in this article. Words like "hypothesized", "estimate" and "equivalent" indicate that the authors don't really know but they are, in effect, guessing. The authors, as noted above, provide no hard data to back up their assertions. They are hoping that the reader just nods, takes their words as gospel and agrees with their conclusions.

What this means is that the U.S. is a significant, albeit unintentional, contributor to the global black market in arms and ammunition in Mexico.

as they are guessing, this immediately calls their conclusion, quoted above, into question.

then of course there is this:

With last week's announcement of a bipartisan deal outlawing straw purchasing of firearms

this quote infers that "straw purchases" are, in fact, currently legal when, in reality, they are already illegal under, at the very least, federal law. A nice little subtle misdirection used to manipulate the uninformed.

Having said all of this, I did hunt down the study itself and did a quick survey of it.

The authors of the study focus on the availability of firearms in the USA but do not appear to consider porosity of the US/Mexico border. In my opinion, addressing the latter would have a larger effect on smuggling (people, drugs, firearms, whatever) without infringing on the rights of the majority of Americans. Additionally, the authors focus in on the trafficking of firearms from north to south but ignore the potential of firearms flowing from south to north from Mexico's southern neighbors where the availability of items like automatic weapons and grenades are significantly higher than here in the USA (especially given that American Central American policy has been one of arming one group or another in an effort to combat the expansion of "socialist", "communist" or other groups hostile to American interests.

Finally, the authors' solution to the problem (increasing laws/regulations on firearms transfer) appears to address only one aspect of America/Mexico cross-border illicit trade. A far better recommendation (and one that would impact more than just firearm trafficking) would be:

1) increase border security. this would help curtail smuggling (regardless of product or persons) across the US/Mexico frontier.
2) increase prosecution of not only the straw purchasers but also the retailers who do violate federal firearms statues and regulations