Since 2008, the U.S. has spent over US$3 billion to help stabilize Mexico and stem its surge in extreme violence. The U.S. gun industry and interest group lobbyists have undercut these efforts by advocating for lax regulation and enforcement. This has created mayhem south of the border, and its effects have ricocheted to the U.S., boosting illegal drug trade and organized crime.
Meanwhile, the federal block on firearm trace data sharing established by the 2003 Tiahrt Amendments makes it difficult to track the illegal U.S.-Mexico firearms trade in order to study these effects.
We are a professor of economic development and an investigative journalist, and we have spent a year sifting through documents to follow the flow of illicit weapons trafficked from the U.S. to Mexico and quantify what this flow has wrought.
