The Mexican cartels have turned parts of the country into a warzone. The entire nation of Mexico teeters on the brink of becoming a failed state.

All the while, they’ve blamed their problems on the United States, particularly because of our gun laws. They argue that if the United States made it harder for guns to be bought, it would result in less violence on the streets of Mexico.

After all, the cartels seem to get a lot of their guns from American sources. It seems officials can’t imagine they’d get them from anywhere else even if we could cut them off from firearms originating within the US.

Then again, they have a new problem that I’m not sure how they could blame us over.

The Mexican army said Tuesday that drug cartels have increased their use of roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices — especially bomb-dropping drones — this year, with 42 soldiers, police and suspects wounded by IEDs so far in 2023, up from 16 in 2022.

The figures provided by Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval appeared to include only those wounded by explosive devices, but officials have already acknowledged that at least one National Guard officer and four state police officers have been killed in two separate explosive attacks this year.

Particularly on the rise were drone-carried bombs, which were unknown in Mexico prior to 2020. So far this year, 260 such incidents have been recorded. However, even that number may be an underestimate: residents in some parts of the western state of Michoacan say that attacks by bomb-dropping drones are a near-daily occurrence.

Maybe if Bombs-R-Us made it harder to buy explosive devices…oh, wait. The cartels are using things that regular Americans simply can’t get their hands on.

I mean, I didn’t see explosive drones the last time I looked at Bass Pro Shops. You?

Now, let’s talk about guns again.

Let’s say we could effectively and completely cut off the flow of guns south of the border somehow. In fact, let’s say we banned guns entirely just to help make Mexico safer. Does anyone really think they won’t turn to their bomb supplier for new guns?

Yeah, I get that these are supposedly mostly homemade to some degree or another, but the explosives have to come from somewhere. I’d imagine someone with access to high-powered explosives could probably get their hands on firearms if they didn’t already have some in inventory.

The cartels are an issue down there and I don’t envy them for having to deal with it. Yet these are organized criminal enterprises with deep pockets and a propensity for violence. They’ll find some way to get guns no matter where from.

Mexican officials likely know this, too, but blaming the US for the problem and pretending it wouldn’t exist without our Second Amendment means ignoring the fact that the cartels are using various kinds of IEDs, even airborne ones, that go beyond the kind of thing available to the American people.

The cartels are an issue, but not because of American gun laws. They’re an issue because they’re violent thugs who have declared war on the Mexican government.