An interesting article from the Washington Post here
In essence there are 6,600 gun shops open to the public north of the US-Mexican border and just one south of the border. Criminal activity enforced by firearms is now endemic in Mexico to a remarkable degree. Some stats:
1. Mexican government forces have seized 93,000 weapons since 1996. 90% have come south.
2. However that’s a tiny fraction of the 14 million firearms sold in the US last year. In Mexico the average official sale of weapons (from the one, government-run gun shop) amounted to 6,490 per year.
3. In cities like Chicago 90% of the cocaine, heroin and marijuana come from Mexico.
4. Death tolls from crime related violence are way above Iraqi levels.
5. The US estimates that only 2% of those detained for organised crime activities are prosecuted
Scary stuff.