We Must Cut Off The Gun Pipeline To Mexican Cartels

The best way to defeat the Mexican cartels is to cut off their supply of guns -- most of which come from dealers and manufacturers in the United States. Here's how Jonathan Lowy and Luis Moreno describe this in The Washington Post: 

According to recent reports, former president Donald Trump is preparing battle plans to attack Mexico if he regains the White House. This is only the latest escalation of saber rattling in the wake of the recent kidnapping and killing of Americans in Mexico. Former U.S. attorney general William P. Barr, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham are among those calling for U.S. military action in Mexico to take on drug cartels.

There is no debating the threat the cartels pose. The fentanyl they push is killing thousands on both sides of the border. In Mexico, they torture and kill journalists to silence them, battle law enforcement and the military, and terrorize civilians. Cartels are largely responsible for as many as 100,000 Mexicans who have been “disappeared” — kidnapped and probably killed — and the 20,000 confirmed killed every year. The violence is spurring migration at the U.S. border. And these transnational criminal organizations are spreading to the United States.

The cartels need to be stopped. But this is not a problem Washington can bomb its way out of. Sending in troops won’t help stop the violence and drug trafficking. There is, however, something the United States can do that would: cut off the gun pipeline that arms the cartels.

It’s shocking but not surprising that at least one of the guns used in the recent kidnapping was trafficked from the United States. Seventy to 90 percent of Mexican drug cartels’ guns are trafficked from U.S. gun stores, supplied by U.S. manufacturers and distributors.

Why do the cartels’ traffickers risk border crossings to get guns? Because Mexico has strong laws regulating gun sales and only one gun store, which restricts criminals from obtaining weapons there. But in the United States, federally licensed firearms dealers can sell dozens of AR-15s and AK-47s and thousands of rounds of ammunition to purchasers without even asking why a buyer would want such an arsenal. Manufacturers continue to supply these dealers despite their dangerous practices, even though the U.S. Justice Department told them to self-police their distribution chain more than 20 years ago.

Money and guns from the United States drive the deadly violence and drug trafficking in Mexico. The money the cartels use to pay for the guns comes largely from their sale of illegal drugs to buyers in the United States. The cartels and the gun industry profit from this deadly trade, while hundreds of thousands suffer.

What has Congress done about it? In 2004, it failed to renew the 10-year ban on assault weapons, which made it possible to recklessly sell them to traffickers. A study found that for both of the two years that followed, there was a 60 percent spike in homicides in Mexico near the border. And mass shootings in the United States tripled since the ban lapsed.

In 2005, Congress passed a law to shield bad actors in the gun industry from accountability for the harm they cause. Gun manufacturers Barrett and Browning make and sell to civilians .50-caliber sniper rifles that can pierce armor and shoot down helicopters. U.S. law enforcement focuses on arresting traffickers, who are easily replaced. But it refuses to take on the U.S. gun industry, which is the source of the weapons used by criminals in Mexico and the United States.

If those who call for military intervention in Mexico truly want to stop the cartels, they should support a ban on assault weapons and bulk sales, and greater accountability and enforcement against gun companies that supply cross-border traffickers. The Biden administration should also crack down on dangerous industry practices.

Instead, the “send in the troops” politicians support policies that enable cartels to amass arsenals. After assault weapons were used to kill 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, 23 people in El Paso (including eight Mexicans) and 26 in Sutherland Springs — all in his home state of Texas — Crenshaw opposed requiring background checks for all gun sales, even though nearly 90 percent of Americans support them.

There is serious policy, and then there’s political bluster. When it comes to the fentanyl crisis and violence in Mexico, there has lately been too much of the latter and not enough of the former. Reforming the gun industry to stop the crime gun pipeline is a serious and necessary solution to this ongoing emergency.