70% of crimes in Mexico are committed with US weapons
Although the weapons arrive in Mexico for contraband, these have been previously legally acquired in the US.
At least 70 percent of the weapons found at crime scenes in Mexico have been purchased from the US market, the country with the most flexible arms sales policy in the world, according to a study published by The Economist.
The number of homicides involving a firearm increased from 16 percent in 1997 to 669 percent in 2017, suggesting that at least half of the 33,000 victims killed by firearms last year in Mexico had the seal of USA
The weapons arrive in Mexico for contraband, but these have generally been previously purchased legally in the United States. That is, an armament policy to export crime rates to Mexico and the rest of Latin America.
This policy of permissiveness for the sale of arms to civilians begins to spread throughout Latin America. Recently, the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, signed a decree that not only allows citizens to possess weapons but can also acquire weapons that were only used by armed force.
President Donald Trump has defended the interests of the arms lobby during his term. In 2017 he said openly that the National Rifle Association (NRA) has "a friend in the White House."
In 2018, gun deaths in the United States reached a record high. That year only about 40,000 people died for that reason, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 10,000 more deaths than in 2017.
