Gustavo Castillo Garcia
Newspaper La Jornada
Friday, October 14, 2022, p. 7
The lawsuit filed Monday by the Mexican government against five arms dealers in Arizona, United States, whom it considers traffickers, states that this trade has caused homicides perpetrated with firearms to increase from 25 percent in 2004 to more than 69 percent in 2018.
According to the Peace Index in Mexico 2020, prepared by the Institute for Economy and Peace, it is estimated that the economic impact of violence in the country during 2019 was 4.7 trillion pesos, equivalent to 238 billion dollars. , which means 21.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
The second Mexican lawsuit, which gives rise to case 4:22-cv-00472-jr, indicates that the expenditure generated by the violence for the national government includes direct costs, incurred by the victim, the government, and the perpetrator, and indirect costs, including physical and psychological trauma, loss of future income, and the impact of fear, plus a multiplier effect that estimates the additional economic activity that would have accrued if such direct costs of violence had been avoided
.
The companies sued are Diamondback Shooting Sports; SNG Tactical, LLC; Loan Prairie, LLC; D/B/A The Hub, LLC; Ammo AZ, LLC and Sprague’s Sports Inc., all located in Arizona.
The Mexican government alleges that these firms operate with groups of so-called honorable citizens, who in reality traffic weapons for criminal organizations that operate in national territory. They systematically participate in the trafficking of these weapons of war to the cartels
he points out.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard reported on the complaint last Monday. In the 238 pages of the accusation it is mentioned that there is a close link between the movement of arsenals from the United States and homicides by firearms committed in Mexico. The correlation between the increase in sales in the United States and the percentage of homicides in Mexico is confirmed, since it went from 25 percent in 2004 to more than 69 percent in 2018. This increase was exactly concomitant with the rise in sales of weapons in the United States, which began after the expiration of the assault device ban
in that country.
They cause almost 4 million crimes in the country
The conduct of each defendant has also materially contributed to the massive economic damage suffered by the government and its citizens. In 2019, more than 3.9 million crimes were committed in Mexico with a weapon of US origin. About 161 thousand of those crimes were against companies
with the costs that this has meant for the nation.
Homicides accounted for 48 percent of this impact ($114 billion), the vast majority of which (69.3 percent) were due to gun violence
, states the lawsuit. Another study carried out by the Index for Peace estimates that the costs to the government of trying to prevent the escalation of armed violence are more than 1.5 percent of additional GDP
.
Note that the defendants are Arizona gun dealers who systematically engage in the illicit trade of military-style ordnance and ammunition to drug cartels
.
Regarding the magnitude of this phenomenon and its impact on the country, the allegation mentions that the violence generated has reduced the life expectancy of the nationals. “The Federal Police and the Mexican Army have been among the victims of the horror story that the accused have written. From 2006 to 2021, weapons were used to kill at least 415 members of the Federal Police or the National Guard and to injure at least 840 more. The vast majority of these weapons were trafficked from the United States.
From March 2009 to March 2021, US weapons were used to kill 25 members of the Mexican Army and wound 84.
.
