The Weapon Chaos in the U.S.

The hunch has been confirmed: The weapon with which Jaime Zapata, an agent of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection who was murdered on a road in San Luis Potosí, was tracked to a man in the Texas area, according to the investigation that ended with the imprisonment of this person and two other weapons smugglers in a Dallas suburb.

The U.S. now suffers first hand what we Mexicans suffer daily because of the drug consumption in that country and of a system of circulation of guns, under the guise of supposed civil liberties, which hides a black market that provides guns and rifles to the drug cartels.

Seven out of ten Mexicans who fight against organized crime are killed by armaments of U.S. origin.

Protected under the Second Amendment of their Constitution, the U.S. claims to be unable to stop the indiscriminate sale to the public. That same legislation is supported by the stringent sectors, like the National Rifle Association, and by the lobbyists of the weapons industry, who say that a nation of armed men is a safer nation.

Pure double standards, since that legal framework allows weapons to be smuggled across the border with the necessary complicity of the customs agents of that country. Moreover, in 2004, a law not only permitted the sale of small weapons, but also liberalized the sale of assault rifles that far surpass the needs for protection of the average citizen.

In our territory is where we have to fight with criminals armed with guns from the U.S., whose government, paradoxically, sells us arms and military logistic support via programs like the “Merida Initiative” so that our military is able to fight back against our criminals. And that’s the way the vicious circle closes, a circle in which they put their guns — both legal and illegal — and stick us with the battle and the casualties. It is not fair.

It does not matter how powerful the lobby of the organizations in favor of free circulation of American guns is; Obama’s administration has to admit that the topic is delicate and out of control.

Mexico is not trying to infringe upon U.S. liberties. It hopes that the illegal weapons trafficking ends and that there can be homogeneity in the criteria for the sale of these, because it is not the same to buy guns in strict California as in liberal Texas, where you can purchase a heavy gauge arm if you want to, without the buyer being subjected to any great requirements.

And again, we have to remember that it was a Texan gun that was used to kill agent Jaime Zapata.