HomeNewsBriefNew Data Reinforces Link Between Guns, Violence in Latin America
BRIEF

New Data Reinforces Link Between Guns, Violence in Latin America

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 14 AUG 2017 BY PARKER ASMANN EN

New US government data tracking the international flow of firearms provides additional evidence that guns remain a driving force behind high levels of violence and insecurity in Latin America.

The National Tracing Center (NTC) of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) released new firearms trace data on August 8. The data covered the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean; Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama in Central America; and also Mexico.

For each region, pistols were the most common type of firearm that authorities traced. Of 2,340 firearms traced in the Caribbean, almost two-thirds were pistols. In Central America and Mexico, that figure was more than 50 percent. 

However, there were differences in individual countries. In Haiti, for instance, shotguns were the most common type of firearm traced by the ATF, followed by pistols. 

The majority of the weapons traced in the Caribbean and Mexico were sourced from the United States. In Central America, on the other hand, roughly 60 percent of the weapons traced were determined to be from non-US suppliers.

The ATF figures are only representative of the sample of the guns that were traced, and may not correlate with overall patterns in each country or region.

InSight Crime Analysis 

The ATF report serves as a reminder that guns are an important factor driving violence in Latin America. Indeed, the rate of homicides committed with firearms in Latin America is often much higher than the national average. Globally, about 41 percent of all homicides are committed with firearms, according to Brazil's Igarapé Institute. But a 2014 joint study from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and World Health Organization (WHO) found that 75 percent of homicides in low- and middle-income countries in the Americas -- which includes Central America's Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras), as well as the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica -- were committed with firearms. 

SEE ALSO: Coverage of Arms Trafficking

The report also underscores the role played by the United States -- the world's largest arms exporter -- in feeding the flow of guns to the region. Mexican officials have previously lamented that guns from the United States fuel criminal violence in their country. And US government reports have suggested that agencies involved in anti-gun trafficking efforts could improve coordination and information sharing in order to better accomplish their objectives.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COCAINE / 23 MAY 2022

Killings linked to drug trafficking disputes are soaring in Costa Rica’s Caribbean province of Limón, as surging cocaine flows and…

CARIBBEAN / 10 MAR 2023

Jamaica has convicted an infamous gang leader using recently-amended legislation. But has the change in law reduced gang violence?…

ARGENTINA / 14 MAR 2023

As the Monos fragment, Argentina is trying new strategies to reduce the violence in Rosario.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…