Article Link
As President Trump continues to focus his attention on following through with his campaign promise to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico and speaking out against the drugs and criminals that flow north he has ignored the guns that flow south. Between 2010 and 2012 alone, more than 250,000 guns were purchased in the U.S. and were trafficked to Mexico where cartels buy and use them to kill. These weapons include sniper rifles, Kalashnikovs, and semiautomatic AR-15s that can be converted to fully automatic weapons. While America grapples with its own epidemic of gun violence, the inability to effectively regulate sales has made life more dangerous in Mexico, which has much stricter regulations on gun sales.
Discussion Questions
1. Should the U.S. government be blamed for not regulating gun sales more carefully or should the Mexican government be blamed for not patrolling its border more carefully or both?
2. In what ways could the U.S. and Mexican governments work together to address this problem?
3. What can people or NGO's do to address this situation if government fails to address the problem?
3 comments:
As for the first question, I think that the blame can be shared between both the US and Mexican government. The fact that it is easier to buy guns in America than one's own country (in this case Mexico), is quite alarming and highlights a serious weakness in our system of gun sales. It may be hard to do, but I definitely think an effort should be made to ensure that guns bought in the US, stay in the US and are not trafficked to other countries. I would also attribute blame on the Mexican government because if they did secure the border better, there would be less people entering the country with the guns. The US and Mexican governments can prevent this from happening by the US, monitoring its gun sales, and where a sold gun "travels" to, and Mexico, having tighter control of their border. And lastly, I think that pressurizing congressmen is a good way for people to try and get this problem solved. If society is strongly devoted to this topic, then congressmen and women cannot help but do what the people want, as they really want to secure re-election, as we have learned in Gov.
I think the blame should be placed on both sides. It's obvious there is a demand for guns, but I do not think were doing more to stop its trafficking. both sides could introduce more security in the border to protect both sides. If governments can't do this, the vigilantes will.
Post a Comment