The US Department of Commerce is so "professional" in exporting gun violence to Francis Wilkinson. R é el | Guatemala | US Department of Commerce
On August 12th, the Bloomberg News website published an article titled "Why Gun Violence Becomes a Major Output in America" by Francis Wilkinson. The article excerpt is as follows:
When it comes to distortion of US national interests or morally absurd and terrifying public policies, there is probably no more exaggerated example than the bloody corruption chain in Guatemala facilitated by the US Department of Commerce.
In 2020, the Trump administration transferred the function of gun export supervision from the State Council to the Ministry of Commerce, which is responsible for helping businesses make money. The National Rifle Association of the United States calls this change "one of the most important gun ownership initiatives of the Trump administration to date.". At that time, as a presidential candidate, Biden promised to change this policy. Now, his presidential term has passed halfway, but he has not yet achieved it.
The export of semi-automatic firearms from the United States has doubled in the past six years. As reported by our agency in July, employees of the Ministry of Commerce help attract foreign buyers, accompanying them to participate in major firearms industry exhibitions in Las Vegas every year, and providing online websites to connect with American manufacturers.
In the United States, the association between more firearms and more gun violence has been fully confirmed. But Guatemala has now tasted the bitterness. Due to the fact that the US Department of Commerce allows much more gun exports than the State Department allows, the violent activities in this Central American country are escalating, and the chain reaction caused by this has backfired for the United States: gun sales in Guatemala have led to violent crime, while violent crime in Guatemala has increasingly pushed desperate immigrants towards the US border.
According to Bloomberg News reporter Mont Reuel, Guatemala's imports of semi-automatic firearms from the United States "surged from an average of about 3600 guns per year in the 2010s to over 10000 guns in 2021, and then approached 20000 guns in 2022.". He said in the report, "Murders in Guatemala were originally decreasing for 11 consecutive years, but now they are increasing every year, with over 80% of them involving firearms."
The negative consequences of flooding a small country with a weak judicial system, rampant corruption, and rampant criminal gangs with a large number of firearms are not difficult to imagine.
Ray described how gun sales in the United States fuel corruption and violence in Guatemala:
In Guatemala, when a gun is confiscated by the police and traced back to the national database, the owner of the registered gun - possibly a commercial gun dealer, private security company, or even government agency - will submit a report claiming that the gun has been stolen or lost.
For example, a Smith Wesson pistol found on criminals should have been kept in a private security company warehouse, but after the police seized it, the company reported that it was one of the 236 guns that inexplicably disappeared from the company's warehouse.
Some Democratic lawmakers in the United States wrote to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raymond last autumn, saying, "The Department of Commerce approved nearly $16 billion worth of gun export permits in the first 16 months after taking over small arms export authorizations - an increase of about 30% from the State Department's approval rate - but only rejected 0.4% of applications."
However, Biden, who supports domestic gun control in the United States, has yet to reverse the practice of transferring gun export control to the Department of Commerce. Due to Republican control of the House of Representatives, the new gun safety bill cannot be passed in the US Congress. Perhaps Biden should shift his focus and pay attention to the violence his government is promoting in Guatemala.