Weapons Traffic: How American Guns Proliferate in Mexico and Fuel Drug Violence

How American Guns Proliferate in Mexico and Fuel Drug Violence - Diana Wueger - International - The Atlantic: "Fast and Furious points to a larger problem: the role of American firearms in Mexico's drug war and the abdication of American responsibility for them. A Congressional report released June 9 by Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein, Charles Schumer, and Sheldon Whitehouse concluded that American weapons are fueling drug violence in Mexico, and that U.S. policymakers have not responded adequately. ...

The Fast and Furious operation was an attempt to use scarce resources in a new way, but this operation underscores the ATF's inability to interdict arms traffic and suggests that the ATF continues to be understaffed, underfunded, and poorly managed while Congress looks the other way. The Fast and Furious operation was an attempt to use scarce resources in a new way, but this operation underscores the ATF's inability to interdict arms traffic and suggests that the ATF continues to be understaffed, underfunded, and poorly managed while Congress looks the other way. ...

The U.S. is fueling a war on its own border through its unwillingness to consider reasonable gun control. Our short-term desire for access to arms is coming at long-term expenses to stability and security. As long as drug cartels are able to acquire military-style weapons cheaply and easily in the United States, the ATF's efforts to prevent gun trafficking and the Mexican army's efforts to capture firearms will have little real impact. Without a concerted effort to curtail the flow of guns to Mexico, American firearms will continue to turn up next to bodies on both sides of the border."