The 'Unbridled Arms Race' Among U.S. Citizens

WorldMeets.Us: In reaction to the massacre perpetrated Wednesday at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. President Barack Obama referred again to one of his administration's pieces of unfinished business: the need to regulate the sale of firearms in his country, where more than 80 people die from gunfire every day. The president said he has had to deal with this problem too many times and regretted that innocent people have to die because someone with intent to do harm has easy access to a gun or rifle. Read more. 

Mexican activists release blimp to urge US to stop arms from pouring into Mexico

The Washington Post 
By Associated Press
April 29, 2013

MEXICO CITY — Mexican anti-violence activists have released a blimp as part of a campaign to urge President Barack Obama to stop arms trafficking into Mexico.

Peace activist Javier Sicilia and the Mexico chapter of Amnesty International say the blimp is part of a “virtual” campaign to put attention on the problem of guns ahead of Obama’s visit to Mexico on Thursday.

Sicilia and other activists are urging Mexicans to tweet with the hashtag “Goodbye to weapons.” The slogan is printed on the blimp, which traveled from outside the Museum of Memory and Tolerance to the U.S. Embassy.

Sicilia said Monday that activists hope to collect 1 million signatures urging Obama and Mexican President Pena Nieto to discuss halting the flow of weapons into Mexico.

The Boston Marathon Bombers: 'Caught Between Two Worlds' (La Jornada, Mexico)

"Despite having started a family, everything points to Tamerlan Tsarnaev never forgetting his roots and being stuck between two worlds that could not be reconciled, particularly as Islamism is a terrible threat and one of the principle enemies of the United States. This perception is a source of great tension inside the country, where the number of Muslims is growing, while at the same time, many see in them an internal enemy that must be fought. ... The terrorist attack in Boston will decide the fate of two of President Obama’s most important legislative initiatives - even if the bombing was not intended to derail amnesty for millions of undocumented immigrants or curb the use of guns by individuals."

Mexico – La Jornada – Original Article (Spanish)
By Soledad Loaeza
Translated By Halszka Czarnocka
April 27, 2013

No firm evidence has yet been found on the motives which led Tamerlan Tsarnaev to stage an attack on the Boston Marathon. The attack cost the lives of three people, and maimed or injured over 200 more. Currently, not a single lead connects Tsarnaev - even less so his younger brother Dzokhar - to radical nationalist or Islamist organizations that may have organized such an attack.

There is many interpretations, but little by little, a conclusion has been reached that the bombing was an individual action, although its social consequences will no doubt be far-reaching. It is vitally important to identify the reasons for the Tsarnayevs’ action. As long as there is no clarity on this, speculation will flourish, much of it wild. But even speculation may weigh heavily on two very delicate topics that are now being debated in the United States: gun control and migration.  Read more. 

253,000 U.S. guns smuggled to Mexico annually, study finds

The Miami Herald 
By Tim Johnson
McClatchy Newspapers

Mexico City -- Some 2.2 percent of all U.S. gun sales are made to smuggling rings that take firearms to Mexico, a scale of illegal trafficking that’s “much higher than widely assumed,” an academic study released Monday found.

An average of 253,000 weapons purchased in the United States head south of the border each year, according to the study by four scholars at the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute and the Igarape Institute, a research center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Profit margins at many gun stores are razor thin, and thousands of U.S. gun vendors would go out of business without the illicit traffic to Mexico, said Topher McDougal, an economist educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who’s one of the study’s authors.

The study’s conclusions are likely to add to controversy over what role U.S. weapons smugglers play in Mexico’s drug violence. Mexican officials have long blamed lax gun laws in the United States for the availability of weapons in Mexico, which has only one gun store and considers gun ownership a privilege, not a right.

The value of the annual smuggling trade is $127.2 million, says the study, “The Way of the Gun: Estimating Firearms Traffic Across the U.S.-Mexico Border.”  Read more. 

Mexico Fatalism in the Face of U.S. Gun Trafficking Must End

By Sergio Aguayo Quezada
Mexico Voices 

The debate over guns in America is a good indicator of the status of Mexican fatalism.

A part of Mexico continues to be trapped in the mind set described by Octavio Paz in The Labyrinth of Solitude. According to the poet, we Mexicans drag along with us an "inferiority complex", from which follows our resignation and silence before unjust reality. I argue that behind these attitudes lie the consequences of being the neighbor of an expansionist and aggressive country. Mexico's military defeat in 1847 [in what the U.S. calls the Mexican-American War, Mexicans call the U.S. War of Intervention] and the loss of half our territory deepened Mexican depression and dragged us into isolation from the world. We stopped systematically studying our northern neighbor from that year until the early seventies of the twentieth century.  Read more. 

Obama's Speech on Gun Control: Can the plan reduce violence in Mexico?

Today, President Obama gave a moving and hard-hitting speech to unveil his package of 23 actions to stem gun violence, along with three requests for Congressional action. The speech was streamed live on www.whitehouse.gov/live

In some ways, the speech and the actions went beyond what many expected. The call to reinstate the assault weapons ban--a decision that lies in Congress--shows a second-term president ready to speak his mind on an issue that has come to the fore after massacres across the country.

Obama attempted to ground the new proposals in surveys showing broad public support for more gun control, portraying the powerful gun lobbies as not representative of majority views. He stressed the human costs of gun violence by describing details of the victims lives, especially the children of Sandy Hook, and appealing to a universal concern for children's safety. Four young people who wrote him about there concerns accompanied the president on stage.

In the speech, President Obama detailed three measures required of Congress and mentioned a few of his executive measures.

The three specific requests of Congress are:

1. Legislation to require a universal background check on all gun buyers. Obama noted that existing background checks have kept some 1.5 million guns from ending up in the hands of potentially irresponsible buyers. He noted that one survey found that 70% of NRA members favor universal background checks.
2. Restore the ban on military-style assault weapons and instate a 10-round limit for ammunition magazines. Obama stated that the shooter in the July 20, 2012 massacre in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater used an assault weapon with a high-capacity magazine that enabled him to shoot 70 people, killing 12, in minutes. "Weapons designed for the theater of war have no place in a movie theater," he said.
3.  "Help, rather than hinder law enforcement", by getting tough on people who buy guns to sell to criminals. He did not refer to specific legislative changes here, but instead to the need to confirm the director of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau (ATF), the agency charged with overseeing arms sales and preventing smuggling.  Obama has nominated acting director Todd Jones. 

As for the executive measures announced, the president called for the development of emergency preparedness plans, and reforms to give mental health professionals options to report threats of violence, while adding, correctly, that it must be kept in mind that mental health patients are more frequently the victims rather than the perpetrators of violence.

He also said he will direct the Center for Disease Control to conduct research into the causes of violence in our society.  Noting that there has been opposition to this type of research and commenting acidly that "no one benefits from ignorance", Obama called for studies that scientifically measure the impact of violent videos and other imagery on young minds.

Here are the 23 actions that the President signed today, not all of which were included in the speech, according to the White House as reported by news sources:

1. "Issue a presidential memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system."

2. "Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system."

3. "Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system."

4. "Direct the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks."

5. "Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun."

6. "Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers."

7. "Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign."

8. "Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission)."

9. "Issue a presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations."

10. "Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement."

11. "Nominate an ATF director."

12. "Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations."

13. "Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime."

14. "Issue a presidential memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence."

15. "Direct the attorney general to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies."

16. "Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes."

17. "Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities."

18. "Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers."

19. "Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education."

20. "Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover."

21. "Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges."

22. "Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations."

23. "Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health."

With the plan on the table, the battle begins. Obama called on the U.S. public to support the measures and begin pressure on Congressional representatives, emphasizing districts heavily influenced by gun lobbyists and organizations.

Will the new plan help reduce Mexico´s violence?

Mexico will be paying very close attention to this debate. From former president Calderon, who called for reinstatement of the assault weapon ban and an end to gun smuggling on the floor of the US Congress in May of 2011, to Mexico's Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity during a caravan across the United States have called for stricter control on arms sales and trafficking because loose laws not only contribute to the mass shootings in the United States but also fuel drug war violence in Mexico as smugglers take high-power weapons over the border.

The Caravan called for:  

"the President of the United States immediately prohibit the importation of assault weapons to the United States. Assault weapons are often smuggled into Mexico, and have also been used too many times against innocent civilians in the US. We also propose increasing the regulatory capacity of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) in the border regions where the arms smuggling is concentrated, especially in border states like Arizona and Texas."

President Obama did not mention the effect of out-of-control weapons sales in the United States on its neighbor to the South.

It's understandable that with a major domestic battle looming, bringing Mexico into the mix might not be strategic. With the racism and xenophobia that characterize some segments of the press and population, mentioning Mexico in almost any context can cause polemics. Just take a look at the number of irate statements from Fox News and other right-wing outlets whenever Calderon called for reforming US gun laws to control smuggling.

But Obama could have, and should have, included some critical points that would reduce illegal cross-border smuggling in the context of US reforms.

A close look at the reforms shows that the first six points relate to background checks. Congress has to legislate to require universal background checks, so these measures attempt to fill gaps within the existing structure, with greater information sharing and rigorous enforcement and definition.

Actions 7-8, 15, 18 relate to public education and gun safety measures, and the development of the emergency response model.

Actions 9-11 and 14 announce additional efforts by federal law enforcement agencies to generate and share information on gun violence from the causes (CDC) to the source of guns. These include  hiring of the ATF director.

Actions 12-13 regard stronger, more effective law enforcement. This includes nominating the ATF director, which he did with Jones. Some press articles have interpreted #12 as placing cops in schools--a terrible idea--but that has not so far been stated explicitly in the list or the public event. Action 18 refers to hiring "school resource officers"--whatever that means.

The rest of the actions include measures to prevent and spot threats within mental health services.

What does this mean for Mexico?

 * Increased background checks will reduce smuggling. There is no question that greater vigilance over who is allowed to purchase guns, as Obama, stated both from licensed dealers and gun-show sellers, will make it more difficult for straw purchasers to buy for smugglers. These measures must be fully and actively supported.

* The most impact by far would be the ban on sale and possession of assault weapons. Cutting off the free circulation of these weapons in the United States would help dry up U.S. supply for smugglers. This will be vigorously opposed by gun proponents.

None of the demands put forward by a group of US and Mexican non-governmental organizations made it into the presidential actions. A petition signed by more than 50,000 people called to:

• Immediately detain and prohibit the importation of assault weapons to the United States, because many of them are sent as contraband to Mexico.

• Order dealers to report to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) the sale of multiple assault rifles to the same person over a period of five days.

• Increase the regulatory capacity of the ATF in those regions of the United States that supply the weapons contraband to Mexico, especially in border states.

The petition did not go as far as Obama did in calling for Congress to restore the ban. Now, with Obama's backing, Congress could and should include the import ban in the restoration of the assault weapon ban.

As to the demand for "increased regulatory capacity of the ATF",  giving the agency more powers must be predicated on a thorough review and clean-up within. After the ATF has a confirmed director, it should immediately begin an overhaul of rules and practices, including more reporting and regulation. This is particularly needed following the famously failed and illegal operation "Fast and Furious", which allowed guns to be smuggled to Mexican cartels.

It makes sense politically at this point to first consolidate the agency and its leadership and then take on issues of giving it greater powers, since it has become a lightening rod for right-wing criticism based on the Fast and Furious scandal.

The right to live without violence

The president knows what he's up against now. He laid it out in the speech (a speech worth listening to, by the way):

"Ask (your representatives) to do this and if they say no, ask them why not..." and added pointedly, "What's more important? Getting an A grade from the gun lobby that helps fund their campaigns or giving parents some peace of mind when they drop their child off for first grade?"

The National Rifle Association's influence in Congress remains strong and extends into international policy as well.

Obama tried to preempt the criticisms by warning viewers that opponents would attack his plan on the grounds of violations of civil liberties. He reiterated his support for the Second Amendment.

Just before signing the actions, Obama noted that mass shootings enabled in part by loose gun controls, are not only a tragedy but a violation of basic human rights. The right to assemble peacefully (for those shot in the theaters), the right to freedom of worship (for the sikh in Wisconsin) and basic rights to life and happiness are violated by violence.

In Mexico, this rights framework that incorporates and adds to the human tragedy, can help in understanding how to climb out of the morass of gun violence here by lending a greater sense of urgency to the issue. The right to live without violence places responsibility for ending the killings squarely within the realm of the state.

Mexico prohibits most gun ownership, but as always enforcement is the problem. If fewer guns come over the border, the nation could have a small, but important, aid in reducing the bloodshed that has become a hallmark of daily life since the drug war began.

In the United States, we must support these measures to protect our communities. But remember that  the dynamics of violence are far more causal than the tools. A killer will find a way to kill.

In Mexico, today's plan comes as welcome news.  But the black market for arms is international and "legitimate" arms in the hands of authorities are just as deadly when turned against the population as arms in the hands of criminals. Until the U.S. government abandons its support for Mexico's disastrous drug war embodied in the Merida Initiative foreign aid package, it continues to feed the dynamics of violence in Mexican border cities and throughout the country.

Obama and Guns: 'Yes, You Must' (El Universal, Mexico)

Mexico - El Universal - Original Article (Spanish) By Dr. Arnoldo Kraus

Translated By Halszka Czarnocka for World Meets US

January 9, 2013

Choosing the appropriate slogan isn't easy. It requires imagination, creativity and following the maxim "less is more," as the message must say a lot with the fewest possible words. The slogan of Barack Obama's first presidential campaign, "Yes, we can," synthesized the desire for change and the need to come together. Now with the beginning of his second term, Obama will no longer need to invent apt and resonant phrases. He'll have to look back.

During his first term, civilian-on-civilian killings have left running rivers of blood and ink. Due to the innocence of the victims and heroism of teachers who gave their lives to protect their students, the massacre of children and adults at a school in Newtown hurts in another way. This mass killing should mark a new presidential commitment. This time, the slogan written on the part of the dead, is society's exhortation for Obama: "Yes, yes, you must." Read more. 

Realistic, Shiny Toy Guns In Mexico City Destroyed By Authorities

Huffington Post: January 4, 2012

MEXICO -- Mexico City authorities say they have destroyed thousands of toy guns in an effort to fight real crimes committed with fake weapons.

Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said Friday that officials believe that at least three of every 10 violent crimes in Mexico City is committed with a realistic toy gun.

The guns were confiscated from shops in Mexico City and the surrounding state of Mexico. Mexico bans virtually all civilian gun ownership and requires that toy weapons be made of transparent or brightly colored plastic. Sunday is Three Kings Day, when Mexican children receive the largest number of holiday gifts. Read more. 

In crime-toughened Mexico City, cash-for-weapons exchange extended

Los Angeles Times 

By Daniel Hernandez
January 3, 2013.

MEXICO CITY -- Promised that no questions would be asked, they've brought in handguns, pistols, rifles, grenades, bullets, and dozens of gun replicas that may or may not have been used to spook a robbery victim.

Hundreds of people have turned in nearly a thousand weapons and at least one grenade-launcher in nine days in exchange for gifts and cash -- as well as anonymity -- in a holiday pilot program that has exceeded government expectations in Mexico's populous capital.

The program, "For Your Family, Voluntary Disarming," was launched at the historic Santuario de la Cuevita church in the crime-toughened borough of Iztapalapa on Christmas Eve, with promises of tablet computers and bicycles for handing over any firearms.

By Dec. 31, when the pilot was supposed to end, about 900 weapons had been turned in, said Rodolfo Rivera, the Mexico City police department official in charge of the program. His team restarted the exchange on Wednesday. Read more. 

Swapping guns for cash in Mexico City

Al Jazeera 

Mexico City uses new approach to combat violence a month after a 10-year-old boy was killed in a movie theatre.

Mexico City is offering cash and computers in exchange for guns to help combat violence.

This voluntary disarmament programme comes a month after a 10-year boy was killed by a stray bullet inside a movie theatre.

The exchange point is in Iztapalapa, a borough of the Mexican capital where youth crime is among the highest.

Civilian gun ownership is illegal under Mexican law unless the owner buys the weapon from a special government run shop.

The voluntary disarmament program has been met with mixed feelings. Read more. 

Newtown: Gun 'Barbarism' that Cannot be Removed by Legislation

Mexico – La Jornada

Translated By Miguel Gutierrez for WorldsMeets.us 

December 15, 2012

Few single episodes of violence have shaken both the society of the United States and international public opinion like the slaughter that occurred yesterday at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, where a man opened fire indiscriminately, killing 26 people - including 20 children aged five to ten before killing himself.

Without ignoring that this episode is part of a long series of shootings in schools, workplaces and public places in the country - such as the infamous massacre at Columbine High School in April 1999, which left 15 people dead; the murder of 33 students at Virginia Tech at the hands of one of its students in April 2007; and the recent slaughter at a Colorado cinema that saw 12 people fatally shot - and without overlooking that fact that any homicide is reprehensible - the chilling effect of the school attack in Sandy Hook is multiplied because most of the victims were from the most vulnerable and sensitive segment of any society: its children. Needless to say, none of the toddlers who were murdered represented threats to the "free State," in the language in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which is used to justify the unrestricted possession of weapons in the country - much less to the aggressor himself.

Yesterday, offering the official position of the White House, a visibly distraught President Barack Obama said: "And we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this." Read more. 

Mexico attacks UN on arms trade

AFP: MEXICO criticised overnight the failure of UN member states to clinch an international treaty regulating the multibillion-dollar arms trade, saying a minority of countries blocked it.

In a statement, the Mexican foreign ministry highlighted a requirement that a consensus of the 193 members of the United Nations agree to the text.

The rule "makes it impossible to reach agreements when there is broad and clear support, which is nullified by the opposition of a minority of states," it said in the statement. Read more.

At a Nation’s Only Gun Shop, Looking North in Disbelief

NY Times: MEXICO CITY — Juan García relinquished his cellphone, walked through two metal detectors, registered with a uniformed soldier — and then finally entered Mexico’s only legal gun store.

To anyone familiar with the 49,762 licensed gun dealers in the United States, or the 7,261 gun-selling pawn shops, the place looked less like a store than a government office. Customers waited on metal chairs near a fish tank to be called up to a window to submit piles of paperwork. The guns hung in drab display cases as if for decoration, with not a single sales clerk offering assistance. Read more.

Mexico urges U.S. to review gun laws after Colorado shooting

Reuters: Mexican President Felipe Calderon condemned U.S. gun laws as "mistaken" and urged Washington to review them after a shooter killed 12 people and injured more than 50 others at a U.S. movie theater on Friday.

In comments posted on his Twitter account on Saturday, Calderon offered his condolences to the United States after a gunman went on the rampage with an assault rifle at a midnight premier of the new Batman film in Aurora, Colorado. Read more.