Latin America is awash with American guns. But its countries will have to fix the problem themselves
and his fingerprints, every gun leaves its mark on the ammunition it uses. Such traces are what Sergio Sandoval de la Peña pores over daily in Mexico City’s ballistics lab. A series of dark-green circles, like the sub-woofer of a speaker, appear on his computer screen. It is a digitised three-dimensional model of a cartridge, found at the scene of a robbery this year and placed under a microscope.
But even in the unlikely event that the United States were to repeal the second amendment, Latin America’s gun problem would not abate. Many national armies and police forces have a habit of losing their weapons. In Guerrero, a state in Mexico, one weapon in five belonging to the state police ends up “lost or stolen”. Central American police forces are notorious for selling seized weapons they should destroy, says Mark Ungar of Brooklyn College.
Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president, has signed two decrees this year making it easier for Brazilians to own and carry guns. Shares of Brazil’s large gun firms have soared. Mr Bolsonaro has said he will legalise imports of American guns too. Legal weapons can become illegal ones with ease through theft or corruption, observes An Vranckx of Catalystas, a consultancy. Brazil’s murder rate dipped after 2003 when new rules made it harder to buy a gun.
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