Mexico is damn near a failed state. It has been for years. The problem is that they just can’t get a handle on the drug cartels that run significant portions of their country.
Of course, Mexico has long blamed the United States for its problems. It argues that without guns coming in from the United States, it wouldn’t have nearly the problems it currently does. This is why they recently filed a lawsuit against American gun manufacturers.
Now, they’re apparently freaking out over Texas and its new permitless carry law.
Mexico, already rocked by drug violence, is increasingly concerned that Texas, the biggest gateway for gun smuggling, is about to enact its new permitless carry law that will expand gun rights — further threatening Mexico’s “national security,” a top Mexican official said.
…
Without naming Texas, Velasco added that weapons smuggled from the U.S. “constitute a huge national threat” adding that Mexico is “extremely concerned states have moved toward a path of liberalization, permitless laws.”
Overall, about 70% of the firearms submitted for tracing in Mexico between 2014 and 2018 originated in the United States, according to a Feb. 2021 U.S. Government Accountability Office report. The report described the guns as a “national security threat” because they facilitate the illegal drug trade and organized crime.
…
“The new law places Mexican expats in the United States in danger, especially in light of El Paso, especially with the heightened rhetoric that we’re seeing from the governor and lieutenant governor, because there are millions of Mexican expats living in Texas,” said Texas Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas and past member of the International Relations and Economic Development committee and member of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus.
“And the second concern would be that people who possess these guns can possess them now without any license and would be more likely to also traffic them,” he said. “And that creates a further vulnerability for Mexicans on both sides.”
I’d just love for Anchia to provide some sort of data to back up that assertion. That’s a very serious claim regarding people who are complying with a state’s gun laws.
The truth is, those inclined to trafficking guns south of the border typically aren’t those who are interested in what the carry laws actually are. Traffickers are more likely to carry regardless of the laws, not because of new ones.
Further, since most guns trafficked to Mexico are either straw buys or stolen, the permitless carry law might actually reduce the number of guns going south. After all, it’s harder to steal someone’s gun if it’s on their hip. Fewer stolen guns mean fewer guns being trafficked across the border.
But Mexico really isn’t worried about that.
See, all of this concern about guns is a deflection.
Mexico has its own version of the Second Amendment, but they’ve restricted guns so heavily that you can only buy them from one gun store, which is on a military base. You have to fill out tons of paperwork just to walk in the door. This makes it so most Mexicans can’t get firearms. As a result, people weren’t able to resist the rise of the cartels.
The problem is that Mexico can’t admit to that. They probably can’t even admit that to themselves. So, they blame us.
It’s the international version of what Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot does when she blames Indiana for Chicago’s problems. What’s more, it happens for the exact same reason, too.
At the end of the day, Mexico needs to clean up its own mess and stop blaming the United States for it. They can start by allowing ordinary Mexican citizens to have better access to firearms so they can defend themselves from these violent cartels.
