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> Additionally they are often just as well armed as the police minus things like helicopters and armored vehicles. I wonder how big an impact the free flow of

> Additionally they are often just as well armed as the police minus things like helicopters and armored vehicles. I wonder how big an impact the free flow of guns in Americas has had on the violence in the continent. It seems like one of the main reasons behind the extreme Mexican violence, at least, is the uncontrolled US weapons market.

aaron-lebo 9y ago
Some but I'm guessing it is minimal. The countries from Mexico to the south have had unstable regimes and violence for a long time (probably because the Spanish institutions were exploitative and exacerbated differences between the landholders/other and Europeans/natives). There have been lots of violent and terrorist movements from the 70s onward and even prior to that. Guns didn't help but the US is far from the only suppliers or cause.
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
Brazil is also a huge producer of guns. Given Venezuela's location at the edge of Central and South America, its hard to say where they would get most of their guns from.
justadeveloper2 9y ago
People have been killing each other long before guns were invented, so I doubt very much it has any real effect. The "uncontrolled US weapons market?" Give me a break! The biggest seller of weapons to those countries is the US Government itself!
- distances 9y ago
  The scale of potential violence with guns vs. without guns should be obvious, so not commenting on that. As for the US weapons flow to Mexico, there was a NPR article last year on the topic [1]. Wikipedia [2] mentions "many of the traceable weapons come from American weapons markets and festivals that do not have regulations for the buyers", which very much is the uncontrolled weapons market, right? To be fair, the Wikipedia page also points to the other direction with "weapons [..] come from either government personnel who defect to the cartels, or are sourced from Central American black markets". [1] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/12/462781469/in-mexico-tens-of-thousands-of-illegal-guns-come-from-the-u-s http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/12/462781469/... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War#Gun_origins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War#Gun_origins

aaron-lebo 9y ago

Some but I'm guessing it is minimal. The countries from Mexico to the south have had unstable regimes and violence for a long time (probably because the Spanish institutions were exploitative and exacerbated differences between the landholders/other and Europeans/natives). There have been lots of violent and terrorist movements from the 70s onward and even prior to that. Guns didn't help but the US is far from the only suppliers or cause.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago

Brazil is also a huge producer of guns. Given Venezuela's location at the edge of Central and South America, its hard to say where they would get most of their guns from.

justadeveloper2 9y ago

People have been killing each other long before guns were invented, so I doubt very much it has any real effect. The "uncontrolled US weapons market?" Give me a break! The biggest seller of weapons to those countries is the US Government itself!

distances 9y ago
The scale of potential violence with guns vs. without guns should be obvious, so not commenting on that. As for the US weapons flow to Mexico, there was a NPR article last year on the topic [1]. Wikipedia [2] mentions "many of the traceable weapons come from American weapons markets and festivals that do not have regulations for the buyers", which very much is the uncontrolled weapons market, right? To be fair, the Wikipedia page also points to the other direction with "weapons [..] come from either government personnel who defect to the cartels, or are sourced from Central American black markets". [1] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/12/462781469/in-mexico-tens-of-thousands-of-illegal-guns-come-from-the-u-s http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/12/462781469/... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War#Gun_origins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War#Gun_origins