Kevin A Hazlett: Like America, Mexico Doesn't Need More Guns Either Kevin A Hazlett - The Harvard Crimson
go to original October 10, 2013

Mexican President Felipe Calderon unveils the “No More Weapons” billboard near the U.S. border on Feb. 16, 2012. (Felipe Calderon/Twitter)

Last year, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, then-president of Mexico Felipe Calderón unveiled a hulking three-ton sign built from crushed firearms. The sign, reading “No More Weapons,” was designed to make a statement against the ongoing drug war which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Mexicans and has caused the disappearance of thousands more to date. Calderon’s choice of Ciudad Juárez - a city just across the border from El Paso, Texas - as the site of the monument was far from random; the same goes for his decision to deliver the message in English. After all, the very weapons used to create the sign were confiscated from American gun traffickers.

The very weapons that, had they passed into the drug cartels’ hands, would have aided in the bloodshed of thousands of innocent Mexicans.

Almost a year after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and just over two weeks after deadly shootings in Chicago and at the U.S Navy Yard, Americans remain divided over whether to proceed with stricter gun control legislation. Representative of the debate’s two sides are President Obama, who has once again called for tighter regulations, and National Rifle Association President David A. Keene, who last semester assured Harvard students that they “would probably be safer” if Harvard allowed possession of firearms on campus.

Each day this debate goes on unresolved, American guns claim more victims. But it is not just American blood for which we are responsible. Our continued indecision has prolonged and exacerbated the suffering of our neighbor to the south.

Read the rest at The Harvard Crimson

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!