President Joe Biden acknowledged that the United States sends “dangerous” firearms to Mexico, including assault rifles.
The Democratic president made these statements during a speech in which he urged the United States Congress to approve measures to reduce violence related to firearms as soon as possible.
Biden revealed that the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, alluded to the issue of US arms trafficking in the Latin American country when he spoke to him about the need to end drug trafficking, especially a powerful opioid called fentanyl.
Specifically, he began by saying: “By the way, do you know what they tell me when I talk about fentanyl, the border and all that? I talk to the president of Mexico and he says to me: ‘Could you please stop sending us weapons?’”.
“We are sending dangerous weapons, especially assault weapons, to Mexico. They are asking us to please stop. But, by God! What are we becoming if we don’t?” he wondered, visibly outraged.
The speech was fiery in tone with continuous references to the grief of American families who have lost loved ones to gun violence. In addition, he expressed his admiration for the activists who continue to demand that the United States Congress implement regulations on gun ownership.
Biden reiterated his call for Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, which allow a gun wielder to kill large numbers of people without stopping to reload bullets. .
The United States passed a federal ban on assault weapons in the country in 1994, but it expired in 2004 without being renewed by Congress.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has increased its influence over US politics in recent decades through donations to the political campaigns of members of Congress, and with that strategy has succeeded in reducing gun restrictions.
However, Congress approved almost a year ago with the support of Democrats and Republicans a law to regulate the possession of weapons, the most important in almost three decades.
That law did not go so far as to prohibit assault weapons as Biden wanted, but it did establish restrictions, such as limiting the purchase of weapons to those under 21 years of age and the prohibition of acquisition for those convicted of gender violence.
So far this year, firearms have claimed the lives of more than 19,500 people in the United States, more than 11,000 by suicide, according to the nonprofit organization Gun Violence Archieve, dedicated to counting incidents of gun violence. in United States.
The Mexican government estimates that some 200,000 firearms from the United States end up in Mexico each year.
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