Forensic economics suggests over 2 percent of US-sold firearms are intended for trafficking south of the border

In recent years, Mexico has been wracked by drug-related violence, which has often been carried out with US-manufactured guns. But how many of the weapons used in Mexico originate in the US? In new research, John H. Patterson and Topher L. McDougal estimate that over 200,000 guns from the US found their way to Mexico each year between 2010 and 2012, around 2 percent of US-sold firearms. They write that the flow of American guns into Mexico and Central America is fuelling violence in those countries, which in turn has caused an upsurge in asylum seekers arriving at the US border.