The Brady Campaign called on U.S. leaders to strengthen American gun laws to make it harder for Mexican criminals to arm themselves with U.S. firearms.
Brady President Paul Helmke said, "'Enforcing the laws on the books' will never be enough: we need stronger laws, and strong enforcement of those laws."
“Our polices help enable this cross-border violence,” said Helmke at a news conference in Washington D.C. “For too long, we have been putting our own citizens at risk by making it so easy for criminals to get guns. Now our neighbors are threatened as well, and our national security is at risk. We must do more to keep dangerous weapons away from dangerous people.”
Helmke also announced the release of a report by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Exporting Gun Violence: How Our Weak Gun Laws Arms Criminals in Mexico and America. The report documents how Mexican drug gangs have exploited weak American gun laws and corrupt American gun sellers to amass arsenals of high-powered guns that have killed thousands, and pose an increasingly grave security threat to Mexico, and the U.S. The report is available at www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/pdf/reports/exporting-gun-violence.pdf.
“Mexican criminals, and traffickers who supply them, cannot get the guns they need in Mexico because of Mexico’s strong gun laws,” said Helmke. In the United States, however – especially in the border states of Texas and Arizona – virtually non-existent gun laws enable access to a ready supply of guns including assault weapons and .50 caliber sniper rifles.
“The same weak gun laws that are enabling the supply of Mexican criminals are supplying criminals in the U.S. as well,” Helmke continued. “Existing laws are so weak that even one of the most notorious dealer supplying the cartels, the owner of X-Caliber gun shop in Phoenix that allegedly supplied 700 guns to Mexican drug gangs, had all criminal charges brought against him dismissed recently. As the X-Caliber case shows, ‘enforcing the laws on the books’ will never be enough: we need stronger laws, and strong enforcement of those laws.”