According to a Government Accountability Office report more than 20,000, or 87 percent, of firearms seized by Mexican authorities and traced over the past 5 years originated in the U.S.

U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings recently convened a forum on Law Enforcement Tools to Stop the Flood of Illegal Weapons to Mexico. Paul Helmke testified at the forum noting that Mexican "cartel violence is a direct threat to U.S. safety and security." And "thousands of American guns continue to flood across the border into Mexico, threatening the stability of our neighbor to the south" as well.

The Brady Center reached many of the same conclusions in the report, Exporting Gun Violence: How Our Weak Gun Laws Arm Criminals in Mexico and America.

Our weak gun laws that are enabling the supply of Mexican criminals are supplying criminals in the U.S. as well.

» Read Paul Helmke's Blog which explains the forum.
» Watch Paul Helmke's Testimony

We are pleased that President Obama has moved forward to require reporting of multiple semi-automatic rifle sales in the border states, giving federal law enforcement an important new tool to fight gun trafficking from U.S. dealers into Mexico. The Brady Campaign urges President Obama to do all in his power to protect this valuable new initiative from the gun lobby’s inevitable effort to attack it in Congress and the courts.

Update: On January 13, 2012, a federal judge dismissed a gun lobby lawsuit challenging the Obama Administration rule requiring that gun dealers in the Southwest border states notify law enforcement of bulk sales of semi-automatic rifles, a key indicator of gun trafficking.  The court agreed with an amicus brief filed by the Brady Center's Legal Action Project contending that ATF had authority to promulgate the rule. The gun lobby is appealing the decision.

» Click here for our complete news statement
» Click here for more on how US gun policy leads to trafficking
» Click here to watch us call out the NRA for opposing it
» Click here for a news story

America's weak gun laws allow cartels easy access to military style guns

PROBLEM: The Mexican gun war is being fueled by American guns, which are being trafficked into Mexico because of weak American gun laws. The same laws that allow gun trafficking into Mexico have long allowed trafficking of guns to American criminals.

THREAT: Weak gun laws allow unlimited numbers of military-style assault weapons and other guns to be bought from corrupt or reckless American gun dealers and at gun shows. The result is that citizens in both America and Mexico are caught in the crossfire and are dying.

URGENCY: Escalation of violence in America and Mexico will continue causing death and injuries unless American gun laws are strengthened.

SOLUTION:  To save lives and protect our families and communities from gun violence, we must extend Brady background checks to all gun show sales to close the gun show loophole; strengthen the legal authority of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to crack down on corrupt gun dealers; pass an effective ban on military-style assault weapons; stop large-volume gun sales that supply traffickers; and repeal the Tiahrt Amendment.

GET ACTIVE: You can do something right now to help. Contact your Representative and Senators to urge them to support the closing the gun show loophole. The Senate bill is S. 843. The House bill is H.R. 2324.

» Click here to urge your Senators to cosponsor the bill
» Click here to urge your Representative to cosponsor the bill