The Gun Lobby’s Arsenal of Anarchy
Exporting firearms while being shielded from scrutiny allows the gun industry to continue to profit from catastrophe
By: Devin Hughes
While the Trump administration deploys troops to suppress protestors and crack down on migrants in the name of national security, it ignores one of the biggest domestic threats to public safety: the American gun lobby. Through its legal protections, the gun industry has enabled the flow of hundreds of thousands of firearms to violent criminal organizations across the globe.
If the government were serious about combating terrorism and violence, it would start by dismantling the legal infrastructure that allows gun manufacturers and dealers to arm cartels.
A Profitable Cycle of Gun Violence
Across the globe, we see a consistent cycle: the gun lobby floods communities with firearms, making it easy for criminal elements to obtain them and then terrorize the surrounding populace.
The gun lobby presents to the general populace the idea that more firearms is the solution to the rise in violence, which results in people arming themselves. In response, the criminal elements obtain even more powerful firearms to fight each other and the populace, all while the gun lobby rakes in profits from every aspect of the downward spiral — which ultimately leads to people leaving their home countries to seek safety, spurring the immigration crisis the Trump administration is cracking down on.
The gun lobby serves as an arsonist pretending to be a firefighter.
Guns to Mexico, Canada, Haiti, and Beyond
Studies reveal that more than 70% of the guns recovered in Mexico that are used in crimes arrive there from the U.S., with hundreds of thousands of firearms trafficked annually. Leaked Mexican intelligence documents recently revealed that tens of thousands of these guns have been directly linked to a vast network of gun stores and individuals in border states supplying cartels with lethal weaponry. These guns range from semi-automatic handguns to assault-style rifles to .50 caliber sniper rifles designed to take down vehicles — all of which contribute to Mexico’s gun homicide rate spiraling out of control.
This cross-border trade is so lucrative that a 2013 study found that approximately half of U.S. gun dealers are economically dependent on the demand for guns from Mexico, most of which go straight into the hands of cartels.
It’s not just Mexico that has suffered the consequences of America’s “Arsenal of Anarchy.” Canada, which still has much lower rates of gun violence than the U.S., has seen a staggering 869% explosion in shootings over recent years as a surge of guns continues to be exported from the U.S.
Haiti is on the brink of complete governmental collapse due to a siege by multiple heavily-armed gangs, which rely on guns exported from the U.S. Guatemala is in the throes of its own violent crisis, fueled by gun exports from America, which the Commerce Department darkly labeled as a “unique opportunity” for gun manufacturers. Even countries as far off as Thailand have not escaped the gun lobby’s predations.
The gun lobby enables violence, chaos, and terrorism across the globe — and U.S. laws protect it.
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Legal Protections for the Gun Lobby
A recent 9-0 Supreme Court ruling that rejected Mexico’s lawsuit against American gun manufacturers highlighted the importance of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) in shielding this Arsenal of Anarchy.
Under PLCAA, the Supreme Court held that, “the merchant becomes liable only if, beyond providing the good on the open market, he takes steps to ‘promote’ the resulting crime and ‘make it his own.’” The Court elaborated, “Congress enacted the statute to halt a flurry of lawsuits attempting to make gun manufacturers pay for the downstream harms resulting from misuse of their products.”
The problem with this analysis, though it captures the direct intent of PLCAA, is that the products of gun manufacturers aren’t being “misused.” The guns are doing exactly what they are designed to do: kill.
Further, the Supreme Court’s decision gives the impression that it is a small stream of firearms being “misused.” If that were true, there would never have been a lawsuit. In reality, it is a flood of hundreds of thousands of firearms annually that represent a substantial fraction of profits. However, due to PLCAA, as long as the gun lobby doesn’t directly promote terrorism, it can continue supplying the cartels and violent gangs with as much weaponry as they desire.
And, to make matters even worse, the tracing data that could be used to identify the worst actors supplying arms to the cartels (which Trump recently deemed terrorist organizations) is blocked from public viewing by the Tiahrt Amendments. This provides yet another shield to the gun lobby and its ability to profit from catastrophe.
It is hard to imagine such legal supports for any other industry to aid and abet terrorism in such a direct and irresponsible fashion. If a bank knowingly allowed a terrorist network to utilize its services to transfer vast sums of money across the globe, and did absolutely nothing to prevent such activity, it would be shut down immediately on American soil.
What Real National Security Reforms Look Like
If the Trump administration were serious about rooting out individuals and organizations providing material support to the drug cartels, it would advocate for repealing PLCAA, repealing the Tiahrt Amendment, and fulfilling Trump’s promise to Mexico’s president to help stem the flow of guns southward.
While the Trump administration has moved forcefully — and frequently unconstitutionally — to counter the threat of those it classifies as “terrorists,” it continues to turn a blind eye to the American legal system’s role in global carnage and increased immigration.
To truly protect national security, the existing legal framework must be dispelled, and the gun lobby itself must adopt practices that help stem the flow of guns to dangerous hands. People should reach out to their legislators to demand an end to PLCAA and the Tiahrt Amendments, as well as legislation to hold bad actor gun dealers accountable for the carnage their irresponsibility inflicts.
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Devin Hughes is the President and Founder of GVPedia, a non-profit that provides access to research and data related to gun violence prevention.
