U.S. Gun Control Efforts Get Support From Mexico Amid Drug War

Bloomberg, 1/14/2013

Guns by Flickr user barjackU.S. efforts to limit gun purchases are winning approval in Mexico as President Barack Obama considers measures to stem violence that could also restrict weapons access for drug cartels south of the border. Eduardo Medina Mora, Mexico’s incoming ambassador to Washington, said last week that there’s a link between the end of the U.S. assault-weapons ban in 2004 and the arming of cartels whose war with the government has left more than 58,000 dead since 2006. The comments echo those from former President Felipe Calderon, who left office last month after a six-year term in which he repeatedly blamed U.S. guns for the surge in Mexican violence. Medina Mora, who served as Calderon’s attorney general and ambassador to the U.K. before being confirmed as President Enrique Pena Nieto’s envoy to Washington last week, said he hopes last month’s school massacre in Connecticut will spur the U.S. to overhaul gun regulations.

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Mexico: U.S. Gun Laws Should Change

Huffington Post,  1/10/2013

Guns by Flickr user barjackMexico’s newly named ambassador to the United States says he hopes the U.S. imposes new gun-control laws that will help reduce violence in Mexico. Ambassador Eduardo Medina Mora said Thursday that the mass shooting of school children in Newtown, Connecticut, last month had raised outrage to the point where previously unfeasible legal changes may be possible. Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he will deliver new gun-control proposals to President Barack Obama by Tuesday. Mexico says U.S. guns, particularly assault weapons, help fuel drug cartel-related violence south of the border.

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