Guns
Impacts of Gun Violence in Mexico
- From 2010 through 2022, Mexico experienced more than 214,000 gun homicides, constituting more than two every three murders in the country.
- Over 111,000 people in Mexico have been forcibly disappeared, according to an official Mexican government registry.
- On average, six women are murdered with firearms every day in Mexico.
- Over two million migrants transited Mexico for the U.S. last year. A recent survey of migrants seeking asylum at the U.S. border found more than half had experienced “persistent and unrelenting gunfire” before arriving to the U.S. This isn’t new. A 2017 study found that two thirds of migrants in Mexico experienced violence.
- More than 379,000 people in Mexico have been forced to flee their homes as a result of violent conflict, as of early this year – with record numbers displaced in 2021.
- These are very large numbers, yet every single serious act of gun violence has devastating and traumatic impacts on individuals, families, and entire communities.
Trafficked Firearms / Assault Rifles
- 250,000 firearms are estimated to be purchased annually in the United States for trafficking into Mexico.
- At least 70% of firearms recovered in Mexico and submitted for tracing from 2014-2021 were U.S.-sourced, according to ATF data.
- If 70% of the more than 24,000 gun homicides in Mexico in 2019 were committed with U.S.-sourced firearms, then there were more murders committed with U.S. guns in Mexico that year than in all of the United States.
- About 59% of allguns traced from outside the United States were recovered in Mexico. It is by far the largest international destination for US crime guns.
- Rifles, especially assault rifles and sniper rifles, play a critical role in the power of criminal organizations in Mexico. A high-ranking official of Mexico’s Prosecutor General’s Office (Fiscalía) told a recent international delegation that more than 80% of firearms used in gun homicides in Mexico are long guns.
- The purchase of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines is illegal in Mexico, but they are widely available at hundreds of retail gun shops in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.
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United States Fentanyl Deaths
The U.S. has the highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the world, with the vast majority involving synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
- Over 70,000 deaths involved synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl) in 2022, part of over 107,000 total drug overdose deaths that year.
- Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-49.
- The high death rate is driven by a huge consumer demand and a drug supply often unknowingly laced with lethal doses of fentanyl.
Mexico Fentanyl Deaths
Mexico’s official statistics show significantly fewer opioid overdose deaths compared to the U.S. and Canada.
- In one analysis, the national fatal overdose rate in Mexico was 0.79 per 100,000 population in 2021, compared to 32.4 per 100,000 in the U.S..
- Mexico has a low historical prevalence of substance use and low misuse of prescription opioids.