OmiZIHón de Deber Municipal

Craig, I don´t think you are "way off" in ascribing these ever-increasing shootings to "cartels," a much over-used and little understood term. But you are someways off.

All of these shootings occur for one obvious reason -- easy access to firearms, pretty much all of which come from the USA. It is nearly impossible for everyday Mexicans to buy a handgun, let alone a military-grade assault weapon, in Mexico. I mean, how many gun stores do you see around Zihua? It is Mexico´s great misfortune, in this sense, to live next door to the world´s largest weapons manufacturer and exporter.

A great many of these shootings are related to themes more mundane that a "cartel" coke deal gone bad, although money is often involved. Some are personal revenge killings, others relate perhaps to a romance gone sour. A fair number relate to politics (and we are entering election season.) A threatening sideways glance in a bar might do it. But at bottom theses killings are caused by easy access to a weapon, and the shooters sure knowledge, in a country with a broken justice system, that he can get away with it.

Is there anything America can do to help Mexico deal with this firearms plague?

Former US Ambassador to Mexico Christopher Landau had some ideas on the subject, ideas he passed on to Washington, but he found during his tenure (2019-21) that no one of either party was interested.