The Social Cost of Nullifying the Right to Arms: The Case of Mexico

Abstract

Mexico’s longstanding violent crime problem has resulted in more than 30,000 murders in each of the last seven years. Criminal cartels now control about one-third of Mexican territory. Drug trafficking, political violence, government corruption, and the Mexican government’s human rights violations have all contributed to the crisis. Meanwhile, the people of Mexico—despite having a constitutional right to keep arms—have been rendered unarmed and defenseless by the government. Some communities, however, have formed militias to protect themselves from cartel violence, because the government will not. Despite the success some of these militias have achieved in keeping their communities safe, the government generally discourages them. Nor has the government managed to address the issues driving the nation’s violent crime crisis. Rather, the government has sued American firearm manufacturers, attempting to hold them liable for the violence committed by Mexican cartels in Mexico—seeking billions of dollars in damages and the imposition of repressive gun controls in America. But the government has failed to establish a nexus between the firearm manufacturers and cartel violence. Part I of this Article describes the cartel crime problem in Mexico, and how the Mexican government has often made it worse. Part II examines the nullification of Mexico’s constitutional right to arms. Part III looks at the government’s suppression of community defense militias. Finally, Part IV details the evidence that American-made firearms lawfully sold in America have little if anything to do with Mexico’s crime problems, notwithstanding the efforts of the Mexican executive branch to deflect attention from its own malfeasance by casting blame on the American Second Amendment.

Keywords: Mexico, gun control, Smith & Wesson v. Mexico