Mexico has a massive problem with cartel violence. They’ve tried desperately to place the blame for that violence on the American firearm industry, even trying to sue gun companies.
That didn’t go anywhere, and for good reason. Much of the time, dealers don’t realize the person buying the gun is supplying the cartel, but when they do, they deserve what happens from there.
Right now, an Arizona gun dealer is looking at being made an example of, and he’s not likely to enjoy the process.
On March 17, a federal grand jury in Phoenix added new charges in the indictment against Laurence Gray, 65, of Hereford, Arizona. He is accused of providing firearms to support a foreign terrorist organization, as well as conspiracy to provide support to a designated foreign terrorist group.
Gray, the former owner of Grips by Larry, a federally licensed firearms dealer in Arizona, was previously indicted for firearms trafficking offenses in 2025, alongside Barrett Weinberger, 73, of Tucson.
The original charges included trafficking guns, aiding and abetting straw purchase of firearms, and helping others make false statements during gun purchases.
The superseding indictment added terrorism charges against Gray.
Authorities say Gray knowingly provided guns to the Sinaloa Cartel in 2025 and then tried to provide them to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel that same year.
Now, these are just allegations, and he might well be innocent of them. They require him to have not just known someone was trying to make a straw purchase, but known who they were trying to buy guns for, and actively worked to help them get the paperwork in order for it to potentially escape ATF notice.
That’s a lot, and while our current set of gun control laws is blatantly unconstitutional, I’m also not really keen on American gun dealers knowingly providing guns to violent cartels. After all, guns cannot lawfully be exported without federal approval, and that’s in part so that we don’t have American guns in our enemies’ hands. It’s a national security thing, and while it goes too far in some cases, I’m also not going to sleep because ITAR is a thing.
Knowingly providing guns to absolute savages like the cartels, who don’t just cause problems with Mexicans, but have killed Americans, is disgusting. Terrorism charges are most definitely appropriate here.
And honestly, this is why Mexico’s lawsuit was so stupid. It targeted the manufacturers, who had no way of preventing sales like these from happening. There are a small fraction of one percent of licensed gun dealers who really don’t care about much of anything and are willing to sell guns to literally anyone. The cartels are just the ones closest to home with deep enough pockets.
But on the same token, Mexico should understand that despite this happening here in the United States, criminal organizations have never been able to take hold of entire regions the way the cartels have, even with guns being far more common. That means it’s not a gun problem in the first place. It’s a failure of the Mexican government to perform even the most basic functions of any government, which is to provide security to the people it claims to represent.
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