Previous Post
Next Post

john-lott-senator-preciado

On Wednesday, 16 November, 2016, John Lott testified before the Mexican legislature about the benefits of an armed population. He was invited by Senator Jorge Luis Preciado. A reform of the Mexican gun control laws is under serious consideration. On October 6, Senator Preciado published a policy recommendation to emulate the U.S. Second Amendment. This would not be simple legislation, but a change in the Mexican constitution. From John Lott:

The last few days have been very exciting with me testifying before the Mexican Senate and House Constitution Committees as they consider changing the Mexican Constitution. Right now Mexicans are only allowed to have small caliber guns and only in their homes. The proposed changes would again allow people to keep their guns with them in their businesses and cars.

Right now there is also only one gun store in the entire country and it is located in Mexico City, thus making it impossible for poorer people from the rest of the country to legally own a gun. My testimony was well received and was broadcast live on Mexico’s two largest television networks as well as their version of C-SPAN. Over a hundred newspaper articles have been published in Mexico after my presentation.

At the CPRC, they have a translation of one of the articles in Melenio, on of the larger national newspapers. From the crimeresearch.org:

“It’s easy to talk about what could go wrong in the arms control debate, but you do not have to guess, there are many experiences in a number of countries that can be considered.

“For example, if it has worked in the United States, why not believe that in Mexico too? Since the system has not worked they may not do so as a federal law, but by states and see how it is resulting. Some states may be allowed to experiment, local laws are enforced, some states have high levels of criminality, it is obvious that the system failed, what can they lose if they give people the opportunity to defend themselves? “He asked.

Lott is a member of the forum invited by Senator Jorge Luis Preciado to analyze the use of weapons, titled “Analysis of the reform initiative to the Federal Law on Firearms and Explosives. In self-defense, “to be held today at the Senate.

The makes the possibility of international reciprocity between Mexico and the United States something to consider. It would be a fitting subject for talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) reform.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch

Previous Post
Next Post

46 COMMENTS

  1. Meanwhile Mexican citizens are being murdered by criminals with guns. Mexican politicians have a vested interest in preventing lawful self defense because the majority of them are paid by criminals. Mexican culture has no moral confict with murder, for them its just business…SO Why would we want international reciprocity with a culture that see killing as another day at the office?

    JUST BUILD THE WALL. They stay their side, we on ours.

    • So much fail. Politicians and drug cartels are not the same thing as Mexican culture. Just like the urban yoots doing drivebys aren’t the same thing as American culture.

      By all means, let’s build a wall. It makes sense to control our own borders. But to say that Mexicans are incapable and undeserving of the same freedoms we enjoy? There’s a word for that, but I really don’t want to use it on you.

      • People do realize that Mexicans and other Latin American people are just A mix of Spanish, Portuguese and Native American right?

        • Yeah, but folks like mk10108 like to pretend that they are better than other people, based on almost no knowledge of the people they like to feel superior to them. Hey, you know who else does that? Liberals! But yeah, I agree with you completely. Just because they live south of our border doesn’t mean they are fundamentally different from us, or that they don’t have the right to the same freedoms we enjoy.

        • Well Red I would say I know illegal Mexicans, I’m in an industry that see illegals everyday by selling equipment reducing the number of illegals in processing plants (no I don’t do robots). I’ve watch illegals sabotage equipment, I’ve been threaten not to return to plants or I would be killed. I’ve watch them steal employers blind despite being paid $15 an hour doing simple task work. I watched illegals turn over a portion of their pay to Mexican line leads (tribute for allowing them to work).

          Don’t allow the positive lens of our culture to cloud the reality of theirs. Its a mistake we’ve made and now must take steps to correct policies that allows it.

        • I hope you know that just because you have seen some bad events/people that you are condemning an entire country of people who share very similar conservative values to many of us and our ancestors? This is like the black lives matter folks saying because a few racist cops were involved in bad shoots that we should just disband the police or that if white supremacists shoot black folks we should get rid of all guns. This logic is dangerous and just plain wrong.

          I personally know many hard working, intelligent, and highly respectable Mexicans who just want to protect their families from the extortion, kidnapping, and random violence caused by the cartels. They are running rampant and unopposed because many of the Mexican ‘federalies’, military, and politicians are influenced by the billion dollar industry. I also know a strong and respectable Mexican man who was detained for bringing his family to the U.S. illegally, seeking safety after he was extorted, kidnapped, abused, and a cousin of his killed, offered refugee status, refused it, and took his family back to Mexico because of the love and hope for his country to turn around this bad period.

          Not only would people be able to protect themselves and their families and combat the cartels, but a change that is essentially the addition of a second amendment to a modern country and the possibility of the positive results in the country could become a global example for second amendment supporters and for the power of personal protection in the modern world. This would stand as the ultimate evidence for our case and could also collapse the drug trade and inflow of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana into the U.S. that destroys families and lives and inordinately affects the poor and uneducated. Think about it if it was the other way around and if it was your family, not the BS that the media feeds you about these people.

      • Use your words and call me whatever you like. The fail is thirty million Mexicans reside in this country because Mexico’s 3 major and 7 minor political party’s have shit on their citizens for the last 50 years. They’ve allowed 80K people to be murdered, denied citizens lawful self protection. Without the US economy allowing illegals to send 20 billion to their families, Mexico would border on being a third world shit hole just above the far side sandbox. They don’t have the brains or smarts to create economic engines so they import US, German and Japanese companies to build factories while supplying people at low wages.

        I’m sick of Mexicans in our country, 50 standing at Home Depot everyday looking for work, not paying taxes, emergency rooms packed with them on the weekends, sanctuary cities protecting them, Obama allowing them to pour into the country, he just shut down aerial surveillance on the border. 30% of all processing in this country is done by illegals. National forest being used to grow pot, damning creeks adding chemicals for drip irrigation and animals dying from drinking water. 50% of illegal fishing is done by illegals, 36% of federal prisons are packed with illegal Mexicans, 90% of meth is made by illegals. Schools and prisons are being paid by the federal government to incarcerate and teach illegals, all the while its dragging down students test scores, and providing profit centers for prisons. All this so democrats stay in power and tax the crap out of us.

        Its not about Mexican gun rights, its about removing them and restoring the rule of law.

        • Restoring the rule of law is the most sensible thing you’ve said. The lack of it is why we’re in this predicament.

          You want to blame somebody, don’t blame Mexicans, the vast majority of whom are doing the exact same thing you or I would do if we were stuck in the same crappy situation. Blame our politicians and theirs, who created the whole situation and profit from the chaos. Our federal government’s single most legitimate job is to secure the borders and regulate immigration — the fact that they flat-out refuse to do it (while wasting massive amounts of time and money on things they should never have started doing) amounts to dereliction of duty at best, sedition at worst.

          I’m not going to use the inflammatory word. It gets thrown around too carelessly. Instead I’ll just say that I think you’ve drawn a faulty conclusion from legitimate evidence.

        • “I’ll just say that I think you’ve drawn a faulty conclusion from legitimate evidence.”

          Perhaps…only relaying reality on the ground which half this country refuses to acknowledge or understand how it impacts our lives.

      • The US drug war is partially responsible for the violence in Mexico. Gaining control of the border AND ending the drug war would give Mexico a chance to get their own house in order. And a substantial amount of criminal activity in the US is drug related.

        Further, after the traditional terror funding channels were ended post-9/11, most terrorists are now funded by drugs. Which do you want: ISIS or legal heroin? You must pick one or the other.

        • ++
          We all know how alcohol prohibition “worked” we all know how firearm prohibition “works” and we all know how drug prohibition “works.”
          Drive money away from constructive taxation and into black markets.
          As a libertarian if you want to shoot up smack, fine. Just do not cause problems and do not expect my tax money to pay for your health costs, or worse, provide for your children (which I will, because they are kids, but damn your soul for instigating such a sad situation) and you are free to do as you like .
          Funny that the left forgets the Obama administration just pledged up to $75 MILLION (on top of the funding and “advisement” we already provide) for them to enforce their own southern border… And that in the past 8 years they have already deported approximately 2.5 million illegals.

        • I’m surprised I haven’t heard lots of calls to end deportation and instead put illegals who have committed a crime here to work building that wall.

          Of course IMHO the BATFE ought to be shut down, and the personnel be moved to the Border Patrol, which would make a big supply of people to supervise the builders.

      • Bribery has been routine in Mexico for generations. What has changed in the last generation is the amount of money available to the drug cartels for this purpose. They offer an opportunity to become richer than the bribery target ever thought possible. If he declines, they murder him and make the same offer to his successor. Certainly, there is corruption in this country. However, it isn’t pervasive like in Mexico.

        Building a physical barrier at the southern border won’t work. Illegal immigrants will find ways around it just like drug smugglers find ways. Instead, make daily life untenable unless you are here legally. Extend the E-verify system beyond employment. Require it for renting or buying a place to live, opening a bank account or a credit card, getting medical care, enrolling yourself or your children in school. I believe it would work. The question is how many “build a wall” advocates would be willing to live with “Show me your papers.”

        Even if we find an effective way to discourage illegal immigration, we are left with the issue of illegals who have been here for a long time. Quite a few were brought here at such a young age that, if deported, they would be unable to function in their native countries. There is a longstanding principle in real estate law that, if you tolerate trespassers for a long time, you forfeit the right to keep them off your property. By failing to enforce our immigration laws over decades, we have put ourselves in an equivalent position. Back when ICE was called INS, the agency raided meat packing plants in my state and found that a large fraction of the work force was illegal. The plants complained to their US senator who put pressure on INS to cease the raids.

        • I’ve long argued that the best way to rid ourselves of the problem is to make it impossible to function illegally – you know, like they do in other countries. No citizenship documents/valid visa, no work, no school, Get caught knowingly hiring an illegal, you go to prison.

          The illegals have been doing the adverse possession thing for the last 50 years. It’s been working, we need to stop it.

        • “The question is how many “build a wall” advocates would be willing to live with “Show me your papers.”

          They are mutually exclusive? Do we have to choose, for some reason?

      • I’m down with that! It would take 100 years for the culture to adapt, before any positive effects could appear. Further, the idea is so unlikely that I am pretty sure it would be the first time in recorded history that a disarmed populace were given the right to bear arms by their government.

        • This! I can’t believe more people don’t see how great of an opportunity this could be for the people of the gun. There are many regular Mexican business owners, etc, who would gladly carry for self protection. This is exactly what happened in Chicago for so many years, no surprise that ‘El Chapo’, one of the richest men in the world from billions in drug sales, made Chicago his central distribution and earned his money by destroying american families and lives.

          Whatever your political view about Illegals, remember that if the cartel problem is solved, Mexico would clean up and more people would want to stay in Mexico or go back instead of being here illegally. If we make it difficult to be here illegally and help the people to take their country back (not to mention get to sell a bunch of american made guns) then we would solve the immigration issue and put a huge dent in the drug problem in the U.S. Then we just have to deal with the pharmaceutical cartels…who are more infectious.

  2. Well that’s just special…trusting the Mexican powers that be. Corrupt for 200years-why would they give up control? Yeah BUILD A WALL for a failed state. A new Mexican revolution is in order…

  3. The Mexican government wants the people disarmed and wants the cartels to exercise power, as long as the politicians get their cut.

    Guns for good people in Mexico is a non-starter. Guns for goons, on the other hand, is Mexican government policy.

    Ultimately, there’s little difference between Mexico and Chicago.

    • Pretty much. Quite a few of my co-workers (I work in construction) are immigrants from Mexico (some legal, some not), and they’ve got quite a few stories. One of the things that really struck me they said is that apparently a sizable chunk of cartel foot soldiers are actually deserters from the Mexican army. Hell, the cartels are so blatant that they literally put up billboards advertising to current soldiers, basically saying, “Hey, we’ll pay you more and you can have real power (and all the sex you want, though only if you don’t care about such petty things as “consent”) if you come work for us! Cash bonus if you bring your own weapons”. It’s crazy

      • “apparently a sizable chunk of cartel foot soldiers are actually deserters from the Mexican army.”

        The Los Zetas cartel was founded by deserters, some very high ranking, from the Mexican commandos. The Zetas provided protection for the Gulf Cartel until they felt strong enough to break away and form their own cartel (now called “Cartel del Norte”).

        The Del Nortes are now the biggest cartel in Mexico and have extraordinary power and wealth.

        Mexico isn’t merely a failed state — it’s always been that. It’s a narco state.

  4. Lott should talk to the mexican .gov about charging and attempting to extradite Holder for his part in hundreds of murders brought about by Fast and Furious.

  5. If Mexico was actually serious about trying to stop illegal guns from flowing in, they might want to help Trump build the wall. Just sayin’.

    • It’s more important for Mexico to export its undesirables and its drugs than it is to interdict American guns headed south. The cartels get all the guns they need from the Mexican military.

      • Guy on the tube yesterday was all bitchy about deporting illegals, but changed his tune when criminals were brought up. Suddenly made me think! Hey! How about, after we secure the border, we adjust our legal system so that we can deport illegal alien criminals to Mexico? And while we’re at it, so that we can deport natural born Americans of every race and ethnicity who are violent criminals to Mexico as well! Empty the freaking prisons. If Mexico wants to machine gun all of them, well, shame on them, oh well.

  6. Poor Dean just can’t seem to get this international reciprocity delusion out of his mind. Why limit your nutty obsession to Mexico Dean? Why not delude and obsess over Canadian British & French gun laws while you’re at it, because the chances of those or any other foreign government changing their laws permitting U.S. visitors to carry handguns are the same as for Mexico, absolutely zero.

  7. I find it interesting that both Panama and Mexico are beginning to consider expanding firearm ownership among their law abiding populations. Toss in the fact that a big-wig at Interpol suggested the same after the Westgate shopping mall attack in Kenya. It’s almost like the United States has it right when it comes to keeping and bearing arms. Maybe that saying is true: you cannot stop the signal!

  8. This country doesn’t want to cease illegal immigration. If it did the federalies would arrest the owner of the chicken plant and the managers. Instantly, no jobs! But actually the powers that be keep telling us, “the Mexican is taking your jobs” while trying to catch illegals at traffic stops. The owners pay the politicians to look the other way while they don’t pay citizens a real wage. The citizens stay angry at the wrong people. It’s the Wizard of Oz. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” Oh, okay.

    Think about it.

      • Chicken farming is the most automated, its the processing plants that would suffer. If Trump deports illegals, entire towns will vacate, housing prices would drop. Gives opportunities for LGBT’s to move in and spruce up the neighborhood. Think Castro district and South Miami late 70’s early eighties and the turnaround in the 90’s. If they don’t want the job, we can get all the stupid people who think they want to colonize Mars to move in and create ghost towns.

  9. The right to keep and bear arms WAS enshrined in the Mexican constitution…

    “The right to keep and bear arms was first recognized as a constitutional right under Article 10 of the Mexican Constitution of 1857.[7] However, as part of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, Article 10 was changed[8] where-by the right to keep and bear arms was given two separate definitions: the right to keep (derecho a poseer in Spanish) and the right to bear (derecho a portar in Spanish).[9] The new version of Article 10 specified that citizens were entitled to keep arms (own them) but may only bear them (carry them) among the population in accordance to police regulation.[10] This modification to Article 10 also introduced the so-called …[arms] for exclusive use of the [military]… (in Spanish: …de uso exclusivo del Ejército…), dictating that the law would stipulate which weapons were reserved for the armed forces, including law enforcement agencies, for being considered weapons of war.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Mexico

  10. A major problem with reciprocity with Mexico, the cartels would pay who ever they needed to to get a license there, then they could legally carry here. Such a deal.

  11. BDub’sand Gordon’s comments condense why wishing for carry reciprocity with a corrupt 3rd world country like Mexico is complete idiocy, but lest we forget, carry reciprocity with Mexico is nothing more than a Dean Weingarten pipe dream that reoccurs each time the pith helmet wearing snowbird experiences butt hurt at the sight of numerous “no guns allowed” signs posted on the U.S. side of the border as a warning before crossing into Mexico.

  12. We are the reason for the Drug cartels in Mexico. We are the market the sell to. If you want to stop illegal drug just make the legal. That way we can tax and do a much better job of controlling them.

    There is no built in need for corruption in Mexico. The government does’t take in enough tax to pay the Federal workers in the Provences a living wage so the have their hand out for “la mordida,” (the bite) that runs about the same as tip 10 to 15% of the value of what is involved to allow things to happen. It works better and cost less if you look at as a tip instead of bribe.

    Almost all the Mexican citizens that cross the border illegally are looking for work. Most used to go home once or twice a year. Now they stay on one side or the other as travel is too dangerous.

    When drugs got in the mix things on the border got worse and worse. Terrorist are tuning it into Hell.

    We must control our borders to stop terrorist, smugglers and slavers from using them as a more or less open highway. A solid wall even of wire causes and serious environmental problem. The wild life ranges and migrated across the border. Mountain Lions and Jaguars will die of thirst trying cross stretches of man proof fence or wall. So some of the fence will have to be open over pretty wide areas to allow wildlife through.

    We most get the criminal illegals off our streets. The illegal worker need to be dealt with. Some need papers some need sent home. The all need to be accounted for. We need a good part of them right where they are.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here