Talk:Firearms regulation in Mexico

Gun Stores in Mexico
Not sure if the reference stating "there is only one gun store in Mexico" is either old or just plain incorrect... When I was in motorcycling through Mexico, I recall seeing a few gun stores, and even went into one in Salina Cruz to see what it was like. They had handguns, long guns, and ammunition for purchase (the cashier stated they mainly only sell to law enforcement, but some citizens with licenses too)- in other words, a "standard" gun store. A simple google search will show many results for gun stores throughout Mexico, but I do not know if that would meet Wikipedia's standards as a reference, so I am simply going to put this here, and let someone who knows what they are doing take care of that erroneous information.

https://www.google.com/search?q=gun+stores+in+mexico&rlz=1C1CHBD_enUS979US979&oq=gun+stores+in+mexico&aqs=chrome..69i57.6344j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:61:7C0C:BF00:5553:47D2:8992:DA18 (talk) 21:18, 2 January 2022 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure what you saw but when it comes to the sale of firearms to civilians, until November 2019 there was only a single store in the entire country due to all private gun stores being outlawed in 1972, placing the sale of firearms under the direct control of the Ministry of Defence.
 * Searching on google it appears all the results are for gunsmiths and not actual gun stores.
 * In November 2019 the Ministry of Defense finally opened a second gun store at the 7th Military Zone Military Installation in Nuevo Leon as a test run of decentalizing the distribution of arms, in their press release they plainly state this was the first time in their history that they have sold firearms outside of Mexico city. 2603:300C:1B07:A600:74B5:9773:24BB:43B6 (talk) 02:20, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

Arms or weapon
Arms? I think weapon is the best translation. juan andrés 04:09, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Mexican Constitution
This article has the changes to the Mexican Constitution backwards. Refer to official Mexican government sources. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.124.149.116 (talk) 19:22, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

US imports
I added the interesting stat that 80% of guns recovered from crimes in Mexico are illegal imports from the US. This was removed as "uncited commentary". Fair enough, I didn't add a citation, but either a "citation needed" or someone else finding the citation would have been preferred to a revert. Anyway, I am re-adding it to the article because the source of the vast majority of criminal weapons is obviously highly important to Gun politics in Mexico. Examples of webcites that carry this statistic include:


 * http://www.senate.gov/~levin/newsroom/release.cfm?id=251112
 * http://www.guncontrol.ca/English/Home/Works/CombatingtheIllegal.pdf
 * http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/transcrime/articles/U_S_%20Guns%20Smuggled%20Into%20Mexico%20Aid%20Drug%20War.htm
 * http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=61192

Sad mouse 19:59, 30 April 2007 (UTC)


 * The article uses an estimate derived from police tracing of guns recovered during criminal activities, and therefore reflect the percentage of guns used in crime rather than the overall percentage of guns "used". Sad mouse 13:40, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

The 80% (or 90% or 95%) estimate was falsely based on ATF testimony before Congress and ATF reports of seized Mexican firearms "traced" through [eTrace]. These percentages have now been debunked by none less than the Department of Justice Inspector General. It now appears ATF has been 'padding' the statistics for several years through the so-called "Operation Gunwalker" (Operations "Gunrunner", "Fast & Furious", "Too Hot to Handle", and "Wide Receiver", by deliberately allowing thousands of guns to be purchased in the United States and trafficked to Mexico over the objections of the gun dealers involved and ATF's own agents. CBS News has exposed this issue.  Congressional inquiries are pending. See [BATF], [Mexican Drug War],[eTrace], and CleanUpATF.org.

Computer Guy 2 (talk) 14:07, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Ambiguous sentence
"There is only one legally authorized retail outlet in Mexico City..." People could infer that there are other legally authorized outlets in other cities in the country. As I understand it there is only the one, single store in the entire country. Can anyone verify this? Sgwheeler (talk) 19:00, 12 April 2009 (UTC) ==== what is the statement based on "Gun politics in Mexico have resulted in some of the strictest gun laws in the world. It is in many ways similar to the United Kingdom, except with much more severe prison terms for even the smallest gun law violations." ??

so far as i can see there are no special requirements under Mexican law to be able to get a gun license akin to british "genuine reason" like sport shooting or else.

So said statement is wrong and misleading. If anything mexican gun laws are lax if you define strict gun laws as denying licenses for self-defense and lax as granting a gun license to any law-abiding citizen without a requirement for "special reasons". --85.180.148.121 (talk) 12:13, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

NPOV VIOLATION
An editor reverted my additions to the article, which additions made the article more comprehensive by incorporating data including criminal use of guns. It is an error to exclude persons who practice crime when assessing the state of opinion and gun behavior in Mexico. The editor who did this, chose to attack me for NPOV and use that as an excuse to revert my additions with citations. But he is the one in violation of NPOV for censoring additional material which has reliable secondary sources for support and indeed is of general knowledge. To present one segment of the Mexican populace as representative of the entire populace results in a non-neutral POV and propagandistic results. I have thus reverted to the objective data I posted, which is not POV, but facts. And I request that at least a discussion occur here and an attempt at consensus be made before the edit-warrier continues his revertings. As additional evidence of this NPOV edit-warring attempt to censor the material I added, it may be noted that the reverter claimed there was poor English in my edits. Now let him demonstrate where there is any poor English in my additions.
 * Actually the NPOV of the article should be improved by removing all the comparisons to the USA. The title of the article is Gun Politics in Mexico -- so why all the material comparing to the USA, unless someone has a POV ax to grind?  If comparisons are to be made, they should not focus on the USA, but on the world.  This article is not supposed to be a tool to make negative statements about the USA.  Thus I have deleted irrelevant references to the USA, some of which seemed to be negative about the USA.
 * After the section "Firearm activity authorized by law," there could be a section entitled "Firearm activity unauthorized by law (EnochBethany (talk) 21:59, 11 February 2013 (UTC))
 * Perhaps a peaceful consensus would be merely to do two things to this article: 1) Change the first sentence to read:
 * "This article, 'Gun politics in Mexico,' covers the legal role firearms play as part of society within the limits of the United Mexican States, without regard to illegal or criminal activity." Then the additions I made to encompass illegal activity can be deleted.  The second thing to do is to leave the references to the USA out.  (EnochBethany (talk) 03:05, 12 February 2013 (UTC))


 * EnochBethany, the article can have a section where it details the unlawful proliferation of firearms in the country, such as it exists in the Gun politics in Honduras article. There, you, I or any other editor can state things like "Despite its restrictive approach to private ownership of firearms, Mexico suffers from ongoing gun violence and gun-related crime.  80 percent of all homicides are attributed to the use of a firearm.  While automatic weapons are only authorized to be in the hands of military and law enforcement personnel, these type of weapons have prevailed in Mexican territory and remain in the hands of civilians, including criminals, due to their smuggling from other countries and the existing unlawful market of firearms."... and so on and so on.  You can give a thorough analysis and state the facts of all the unlawful/criminal activity involving firearms in that section.  Putting something like "In order to get a gun in Mexico, an excessive amount of paperwork is required by SEDENA.  It's good to know that criminals ignore these strict rules and simply acquire their guns in the black market" is not, in any way, encyclopedic/Wikipedia standards.  Thanks.  --Usfirstgov (talk) 03:39, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

"Of course those who watch Spanish language news have no misconception that criminals commonly carry firearms and kill persons in Mexico, regardless of paper laws. - there is no article at the link that says this. " except for criminals who commonly ignore the law, carry guns, and shoot them wherever and whenever they so choose. - the linked article doesn't say this, the editor is using it as an argument for his edit - this is what we call original research, see WP:NOR. "except in the common case of criminals who get need no permission from the government, yet carry and use guns quite commonly." (ctrl-click)"> - basically the same thing. And "

As an alternative, a person may choose to ignore the law and privately buy guns and ammunition without regard to the law. - oops, forgot to sign this last night. I've deleted these 3 bits of original research. Dougweller (talk) 10:13, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

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Please revise article to clarify "except", "Exception" and the like
It is hard to know what the editors mean when they write like "a .38 is excepted," "there is an exception for 38 super," etc. One can't tell if the particular gun is allowed or not allowed. Is the exception from what is permitted or from what is prohibited??? (PeacePeace (talk) 04:35, 3 July 2018 (UTC))