Earlier this month, the federal government of Mexico and I had been named “Particular person of the 12 months” for 2021 by the Arms Management Assn., a U.S. group based by Military veterans and diplomats. We had been acknowledged for Mexico’s ground-breaking lawsuit in opposition to main U.S. gun producers and for taking “a novel method to fight illicit weapons trafficking from the US into Mexico.”
Receiving such recognition — for which I categorical my deep and honest appreciation — offers us much more of an incentive to proceed defending the lives and well-being of our folks.
The lawsuit, filed in August in a Massachusetts federal district court docket, claims that U.S. gun firms are “knowingly flooding the nation with illicit firearms, which have introduced horrific ranges of bloodshed,” as Los Angeles Instances columnist Jean Guerrero wrote in November.
It's the first time a nationwide authorities has sued gun producers within the U.S. As we go after gun trafficking, our motion addresses an indispensable but lacking hyperlink: company duty.
Of the estimated half-million weapons that illegally circulate yearly from the U.S. to criminals south of the U.S.-Mexico border, about 340,000 of them are offered by the ten firms named in our lawsuit. Seventy % of weapons recovered and traced in crime scenes in Mexico come from the US.
The excessive price of lethal violence in Mexico calls for an modern method that considers actions by governments in addition to these of business entities that provide the darkish market with weapons and ammunition, the latent supply of firepower for criminals. Simply between 2015 and 2021, authorities in Mexico registered greater than 138,700 homicides dedicated with firearms.
Mexico is taking authorized motion in opposition to gun producers to carry them accountable and make them change how they do enterprise.
We would like them to abate and treatment the general public nuisance they've created in Mexico, implement requirements adequate to fairly monitor and self-discipline their distribution system to forestall illicit trafficking of their merchandise, and to include all fairly obtainable security mechanisms into their weapons, together with units to forestall unauthorized customers from firing the weapons. An award of considerable damages would additionally probably deter the gun makers and others from persevering with or repeating their illegal conduct.
The lawsuit goals to lower the variety of illicit weapons in Mexico, weaken organized crime, allow Mexico to higher handle human trafficking, crack down on the circulate of medication north and reduce irregular immigration flows attributable to armed violence within the area.
The COVID-19 pandemic introduced renewed consideration to how necessary innovation is to defending the lives of our folks and the way long-term options require the participation of all related events.
Governments can not wait any longer to handle gun trafficking and the violence it provokes: It's one other type of pandemic that spawns an excessive amount of ache and jeopardizes the way forward for Mexico and the encircling area.
In Mexico, for too lengthy we have now seen how violence has tragic penalties for atypical folks: Homicides dedicated with firearms are the principle reason behind loss of life amongst our youth and probably the most used weapon to commit femicide. Gun violence has additionally orphaned about 40,000 Mexicans.
Earlier than submitting the lawsuit, Mexico had for a few years pursued the numerous methods obtainable in regional and worldwide boards. For 2 consecutive years, Mexico has presided over the Firearms Working Group of the Convention of States Events to the United Nations Conference in opposition to Transnational Organized Crime. Consequently, greater than 50 suggestions had been made to forestall, examine and penalize arms trafficking and diversion.
On the finish of final 12 months, the U.N. Safety Council accepted a decision submitted by Mexico, which states that small arms and lightweight weapons are threats to worldwide peace and safety. It condemns arms flows ensuing from the actions of non-state actors and requires full compliance with earlier resolutions on the matter and for better change of knowledge on arms trafficking routes.
Collectively, Mexico and the US established the Bicentennial Framework for Safety, Public Well being and Secure Communities, aimed toward guaranteeing each nations’ safety and offering concrete outcomes by applications that work in tandem.
Opposite to what some have tried to counsel, Mexico’s lawsuit in opposition to U.S. gun makers doesn't search to intrude with the 2nd Modification rights of U.S. residents. Our actions — like these of this 12 months’s different Arms Management Assn. nominees and former Individuals of the 12 months — are aimed toward saving lives and making the world safer and extra peaceable by selling a clear and accountable firearms commerce.
For us, a long-term answer to curb gun trafficking is nothing in need of an ethical crucial. Selling and imposing company duty by the most important gun producers is a key a part of that answer.
Marcelo Ebrard is theSecretary of Overseas Affairs of Mexico.
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