Taking Guns to Holy Ground (Mex City Gun Buy-Back)

New York Times ^ | February 12, 2013 | Elisabeth Malkin

[Brad from Tennessee]

MEXICO CITY — A young woman cradling a large crucifix left Mexico’s holiest shrine, the Basilica of St. Mary of Guadalupe, on a recent afternoon and stopped at a tent outside, where soldiers were piling up pistols and rifles on a table, part of a citywide cash-for-guns program.

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They are sending social workers door to door to remind residents that it is illegal to have a gun without a permit and that a gun at home does not guarantee protection. The workers have been spreading the word about the exchange and compiling an informal census on attitudes about guns. The buyback program, which began in December, has so far collected almost 3,500 guns, as well as ammunition and grenades.

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t is virtually impossible to buy a gun legally; there is only one gun shop in the country, and it is run by the army. The kinds of guns people can buy are sharply limited and require a permit first. Private gun sales also require a permit, and carrying a gun outside one’s home requires a separate document. . .

[Brad from Tennessee]

Firearms are virtually illegal in Mexico yet 50,000 people died there in six years at the hands of criminals employing everything from handguns and fully automatic rifles to crew-served machineguns, grenades and shoulder-fired rockets. In a program that could be a precursor to outright confiscation, the Mexican government is attempting to strip the populace of the few remaining privately held firearms--many of them antiques.

[Brad from Tennessee]

[The vast majority of guns here come from the United States, either smuggled in by criminal gangs or diverted from legal purchases by corrupt officials, according to Magda Coss, who has written about Mexico’s gun trade. Mexican leaders have blamed lax gun laws north of the border for the gun violence here, which the government says has taken about 50,000 lives in the past six years.]

True or not, these aren't the guns that are killing people. From everything I've read the Cartels equip themselves with military-grade automatic rifles bought from the Mexican Army, the Guatemalan Army and from international arms brokers who can supply hand grenades, RPG’s, heavy machineguns, and sophisticated explosives.

[apillar]

"it is virtually impossible to buy a gun legally; there is only one gun shop in the country, and it is run by the army. The kinds of guns people can buy are sharply limited and require a permit first. Private gun sales also require a permit, and carrying a gun outside one’s home requires a separate document. . .

Translation, only the important and well connected may legally own a gun. The average citizen is out of luck. And if Obama/Biden/Feinstein gets their way, that would be the law here.

[rktman]

Wow. Now that is weird. I could have sworn that eric holdem drove down there and gave them millions of weapons for target practice only. (Sarc off)[jail time on for mr. holdem]

Are the cartel’s Escalades lined up to turn in their weapons? Probably just the criminalized lower income (just about everybody?) that may have had a weapon passed down over the years? The one gun store is in Mexico City and run by the Mexican army who we all know is NOT corrupt at all.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I saw the movie VIVA ZAPATA the other night. I thought it was interesting that after the Rebels won the war, the politicians had all the people turn in their guns. Then the Army attacked.