Kansas City Star Editorial Says U.S. Shares Blame for Mexico’s Woes

In an editorial for The Kansas City Star, Mary Sanchez notes “Mexico’s drug problems are ours, and vice versa.” That is debatable.  She tries to offer a misguided history lesson, which is fine. But then she attempts to point the blame at American firearms, and that’s where her editorial needs to be called out.

She writes:

“A large proportion of the guns and ammo used in Mexico’s drug violence come from the U.S. They are bought legally at gun shows or at gun shops along the border and then shipped south. One way the U.S. could impact the violence would be to clamp down on the gun traffic with better monitoring of sales. The U.S. gun lobby won’t hear of it. Sorry, they’ll tell you, the Second Amendment means never having to admit responsibility.”

No, the Second Amendment does not mean never having to admit responsibility, but why are law-abiding American gun owners suddenly to blame for the crime in Mexico? That’s the first question to ask.

But we’d also like to ask what exactly constitutes “a large proportion of guns and ammo,” and does Ms. Sanchez have any hard numbers. We hear time and time again about gun shops along the border supposedly supplying the bulk of the guns. But what about the law enforcement officials who aid in this process? What about the military hardware that is being used by the cartels, as that isn’t coming out of any gun shop?

Maybe the responsibility of the mainstream media should be in asking those hard questions.