MEXICO'S GUN-CONTROL LAWS: A MODEL FOR THE UNITED STATES?

• Published in: Texas review of law & politics Vol. 18; no. 1; p. 27
• Main Author: Kopel, David B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Austin University of Texas, Austin, School of Law Publications, Inc 01.10.2013
• Subjects: Constitutional law; Explosives; Firearm laws & regulations; Firearms; Guarantees; Law enforcement; Litigation; Military reserves; Obama, Barack
• ISSN: 1098-4577; 1942-8618

The Small Arms Survey, an international gun-control think tank, guesstimates that there are about 15.5 million total firearms in civilian hands in Mexico,15 but acknowledges that the size of the civilian gun stock is very murky.16 About 4.5 million of these firearms are legally registered.17 A study conducted using polling techniques designed to elicit indirect disclosures of gun ownership estimated that 5.6 million Mexican homes, comprising 14% of Mexican households, have a firearm.18 In high violence areas, 50% of poor households have a gun.19 Generally speaking, firearms are readily available on the black market to Mexicans who want to obtain guns for self-defense or for criminal purposes.20 In early 2013, residents of communities in Tierra Caliente formed self-defense groups for protection against the cartels.21 These groups now have several thousand members and have succeeded at liberating some areas from cartel control.22 Although the members carry firearms that are normally forbidden for citizens, the government has sometimes worked cooperatively with them.23 However, in early 2014, the government began taking a harsher stance and has even shot members of the peasant self-defense groups.24 President Calderón has called for gun registration in America,25 as has President Obama, although the Obama Administration prefers to talk about creating a national database for guns rather than invoking the words "gun registration. "26 The Mexican Senate has also asked the United States to create a registry of all commercial firearms sales in the four southwest border states.\n235 In recent years, the OAS has veered sharply into the Chavezista camp, supporting rather than criticizing repressive governments in the Western Hemisphere.236 Again, the Obama Administration would have to cooperate in order for the Inter-American Court to hear the case.237 The result could be the same as from the World Court: a non-binding international obligation for the U.S. federal government to impose severe regulations on gun owners and gun manufacturers.238 The Obama Administration has been attempting-so far unsuccessfully-to convince the Senate to adopt the OAS gun- control convention, known as CIFTA.239 The Convention would obligate the U.S. government to impose drastic new gun controls.240 The final possibility for the Mexican suit is in an American federal court.