Mexico is awash in violence. And the country’s stringent gun control laws aren’t helping.
On Feb. 22, the Mexican military carried out an operation that killed Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, nicknamed “El Mencho,” the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Mexican armed forces were reportedly trained by a small cadre of U.S. Navy SEALs who entered the country on a “training mission” approved by Mexico’s Senate.
CJNG responded to El Mencho’s death with wanton violence. The cartel murdered no fewer than 25 Mexican National Guard members and set up no fewer than 250 roadblocks. Schools were closed, and flights at airports were grounded. Dozens of buildings were burned. The savagery spanned multiple jurisdictions. By day’s end, at least 60 people had been slaughtered.
The U.S. and Mexican governments issued joint statements calling for their citizens to “shelter in place.” Countless men, women, and children were forced to hide. Those unlucky to be caught found themselves at the cartel’s mercy.
For many Americans, it is a nearly unthinkable situation. But the United States has the Second Amendment and is filled with thousands of law-abiding gun owners.
Tragically, the same can’t be said for Mexico, where both the state and cartels have a monopoly on gun ownership. Your average citizen gets the short end of the stick.
Mexico’s government might not be able to thwart the cartels, but it sure can regulate firearms ownership.
Indeed, up until quite recently, there was only one place in the entire country to purchase firearms. And that place, the Directorate of Commercialization of Arms and Munitions, is on a secure military base.
The process to purchase these guns is arduous and requires extensive time and vetting. Citizens who qualify are restricted to certain calibers and designs and are forbidden from having guns that shoot common cartridges used by the military, such as 9mm. They are only allowed to have one handgun. And concealed carry is forbidden. “High capacity magazines”–that is, magazines that carry what is a standard amount in most U.S. states–are also illegal.
Mexico’s firearms laws are stricter than any in the U.S. In fact, much of what Mexico has on the books is precisely what liberals claim will “curb gun violence.” Their proposed solutions look like Mexico’s gun laws. But just as strict firearms laws haven’t curbed violence in Chicago, Washington, D.C., or Baltimore, they’ve done nothing to make Mexico and its citizens safer.
And just like the liberals that rule those locales, Mexico’s government is always able to point the finger elsewhere and assign blame for the violence. Like them, Mexico blames gun manufacturers, filing lawsuits against Smith and Wesson, Glock, Colt, and others. As Brandon Darby and Ildelfonso Ortiz noted in 2022, the Mexican journalist Carlos Loret De Mola revealed that 30% of the weapons purchased by the Mexican military “went missing.” That is a large number of firearms to just up and disappear.
EL MENCHO AND TRUMP’S OPPORTUNITY IN MEXICO
Mexico is a testament to what happens when the state, and not citizens, is given a monopoly on control and self-defense. Citizens become subjects, or worse.
Criminals, by definition, break laws. Governments, history tells us, are frequently incompetent, corrupt, or both. Gun laws don’t protect innocents. Rather, they create victims. Sadly, Mexico has no shortage.