In a Country with Just One Gun Store, Activists Struggle to Loosen Mexican Gun Laws Nick Miroff - The Washington Post
go to original July 6, 2014

Members of self-defence groups wait for their turn during the registration and ballistics test at the Coalcoman community in Michoacan State, Mexico. (Enrique Castro/AFP/Getty Images)

MEXICO CITY — Luis Merino may be the loneliest gun rights activist in North America.

Like a kid in a pastry shop, he gazes longingly into the display cases of 9mm handguns and sleek semi-automatic rifles here at the Directorate of Arms and Munitions Sales, the only gun store in this entire country. Run by the Mexican military, it restricts purchases of such models to police departments.

“The ones we can buy are over there,” Merino said, pointing across the store to the deer rifles and small handguns, no larger than a .380 caliber.

Yet Merino has gotten little traction trying to marshal a campaign for looser gun laws through his Facebook group, Mexico Armado (Mexico Armed).

“I’ve tried to contact congressman, senators. They never respond,” said Merino, a Mexican military veteran who works as a private security consultant. “At this moment there are few of us, but when we have built a movement and we have votes, they’re going to have to pay attention to us.”

If, to some, the relatively lax gun laws in the United States seem to be out of whack with those of other industrialized nations, frustrated activists like Merino say Mexico’s tight regulations are even further out of whack with his country’s heavily armed reality.

Read the rest at The Washington Post

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!