[seanmcdirmid]

> Mexico has strict gun laws, and their gun homicide rate is higher than in the US. Why? The drug trade + poverty.

Also add the gun trade. Drugs go north from Mexico, guns flow back south from the US. If the US didn't have such a huge arms industry, the murder rate in Mexico/central america would invariably decrees since the only other large arms producer in the Americas is...Brazil.

tl;dr guns and drugs are heavily related in a wicked trade relationship.