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Activists: US must stem ‘iron river’ of guns flowing to LatAm

A guest browses firearms in the Taurus display at the National Rifle Association's Annual Meetings & Exhibits in Indianapolis,  April 16, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)

US guns, many of them exported legally, are flowing into Latin America in an “iron river” ending in the hands of drug cartels and abusive security forces, activists said Monday, calling for greater oversight from US law and federal agencies.

Sixteen US states and a handful of Caribbean governments last month expressed support for Mexico’s appeal in a civil lawsuit against US gun manufacturers, which seeks to hold them responsible for facilitating the trafficking of deadly weapons

More than half of “crime guns” recovered and traced in Central America are sourced from the United States, according to US gun control agency ATF. This level nears 70 percent for Mexico and is around 80 percent across the Caribbean.

“It’s called the iron river and it’s flooding countries to the south,” Elizabeth Burke of US non-profit Global Action on Gun Violence said at an event organized by the Center for American Progress in Washington.

ALSO READ: Mexico launches appeal in suit against US gun makers

Burke called for rules preventing manufacturers from selling to dealers with lax distribution practices. Manufacturers should also stop selling armor-piercing weapons and guns that can easily be modified to shoot hundreds of bullets at a time, she said.

John Lindsay-Poland, an activist from Stop US Arms to Mexico, added that lax license rules and enforcement helped facilitate the cross-border flow of arms – including military-grade weapons desired by cartels.

“Why would we be arming the very people that we say we are fighting?” he said, calling for more controls at the start of the supply chains.

Sixteen US states and a handful of Caribbean governments last month expressed support for Mexico’s appeal in a civil lawsuit against US gun manufacturers, which seeks to hold them responsible for facilitating the trafficking of deadly weapons.

US gunmakers have maintained that they sell firearms legally to Americans who pass a background check.

ALSO READ: Biden appeals ruling against ban on gun bump stocks

US government figures show last year that income from legal firearm shipments to Latin America increased 8 percent, with most sales going to Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia.

The National Rifle Association and the State Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

“We don’t want more tragedies in our families,” said Maria Herrera, who founded a national collective investigating the many forced disappearances in Mexico and where the number of gun homicides is surging.

“It destroys lives, breaks families apart, fills communities with pain and panic,” Herrera said at the event. “We can’t live like this.”