Drug War Continues

Amanda Dominguez

Recently, Mexico's ambassador, Arturo Sarukhan, has made comments blaming laxed US gun laws on fueling the drug wars on the Mexican-American border. It is speculated that cartels have been purchasing guns in the US and using their to wage war and violence along the border. Sarukhan claims the there is a direct correlation between the lifting of the US ban of military weapons in 2004 and the seizure of assault weapons. He is thus calling for reinstating of the ban and claims it would have a great impact on the amount of fire arms brought into his country. Although I do agree that our gun laws are too relaxed and that they are definitely fueling the violence, I also agree with the issue of facing gun lobbyist in the US. According to this BBC news article 6,000 people have died in the law year due to violence between the cartels and 90% of the guns used are purchased in the US. Even if these statistic were half accurate, this is a huge issue that I hope to see Obama resolve.