Congressional Democrats seek to stop military-grade weapons sales to cartels

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is introducing a bill that would prohibit military manufacturing plants in the United States from selling assault ammunition to civilians, saying the effort will help stem the flow of military-grade weapons to drug cartels in Mexico.

A New York Times investigation found that a significant proportion of .50 caliber ammunition used by cartels in Mexico was produced at a government-owned manufacturing plant in Missouri.

Mexico’s defense secretary said that nearly half of all .50 caliber ammunition seized by Mexico since 2012 came from that plant by way of gun shops in the southern United States.

Those kinds of military-grade weapons have allowed Mexico’s drug cartels to become more dangerous, Cecilia Farfán-Méndez with the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime said.

“If you look at the ammunition of a .50 cal weapon, it’s like the size of a carrot,” Farfán-Méndez said. “It’s quite lethal. So essentially what it has done is it’s increased the firepower of criminal groups in Mexico.”

Mexican officials have long called for the United States to do more to crack down on arms smuggling across the border.

Mexico is currently suing five Arizona gun dealers that it says engage in “negligent practices that facilitate illicit firearms trafficking.” The years-old lawsuit was filed at the same time as a $10 million lawsuit against U.S. gun manufacturers, which the U.S. Supreme Court blocked last summer.

Warren’s legislation joins a similar bill from Democrats introduced last month that targets the sale of .50 caliber rifles.

“If you want to reduce violence in Mexico, there’s a part that the U.S. plays in that and this is very much within their reach,” Farfán-Méndez said.