Reducing the Flow of Guns

Under the auspices of the beautifully named Operation Ant, the Mexican government has offered a report summarizing its knowledge of the nation's gun smugglers. They've identified four principal routes used for moving weapons down from the United States, and say that the cartels are the most prolific smugglers. So far this year, Mexico has seized more than 18,000 weapons, well above the average for the last several years. 

The article on Operation Ant doesn't mention any participation by American authorities, which I assume doesn't mean that there wasn't any. Whatever the case, much more than legalizing marijuana (see last post), cracking down on the flow of guns south from Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California would be the easiest and quickest way for the American government to reduce the Mexican cartels' killing power. I hope the drug policy-makers in the Obama administration have that in mind.