A farewell to arms smuggling

The recent dismissal of charges against an Arizona gun dealer accused of knowingly furbishing firearms for Mexico’s Beltrán Leyva cartel has frustrated authorities.

Prosecutors plan to appeal the case of George Iknadosian, who stands accused of selling more than 700 weapons, via intermediaries, to the Mexican drug cartel.

Escalating violence related to the narcotics trade has brought the issue of America’s lenient gun laws front and center. More than 6,000 people were killed in Mexico in 2008 alone,  and investigators traced many of the guns used in these crimes back to the United States. More than 500 of the guns recovered came from Arizona, including several from Iknadosian’s shop.

America appears to be a major culprit in the supply of arms to Mexico’s drug warriors, and U.S officials are starting to take note.

Recent comments by Attorney General Eric Holder regarding Mexico’s drug wars have reignited the debate over gun control in the United States. Holder, for his part, took the opportunity to propose stricter gun ownership laws, including a revival of the federal ban on assault weapons.

While acknowledging that the current state of American gun ownership laws is having a decidedly adverse effect on the situation in Mexico, we disagree with much of the sentiment in favor of limiting Americans’ access to firearms and oppose efforts to infringe upon this constitutionally guaranteed right.

Nonetheless, as Americans we should pause to consider the ramifications of our policies and actions abroad – whether it’s our lax gun laws or our insatiable appetite for mind-altering substances that keeps drug cartels in business.

Current firearms registration procedures – which are piecemeal and mostly at the state level – provide too many loopholes by which smugglers can funnel firearms to our southern neighbor. We believe a comprehensive, federal system of registration would assist authorities in enforcing the laws already on the books.

Our freedoms should not stand in the way of efforts by law enforcement to curtail the heinous violence in Mexico.