Mexican Gun Control Ensures Cartels Outgun the Good Guys

2017 may have been the worst year for homicide in Mexico since the government began keeping track in the 1990s.

It's a safe bet that the homicide rate isn't coming anywhere near what it was in the years surrounding the revolution 100 years ago. But it may be the worst rate in several decades.

German news site DW reports:

The Interior Ministry said authorities across Mexico opened 29,168 murder cases, saying that it put the country's homicide rate at 20.5 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The highest figure ever recorded in Mexico before last year was in 2011, during the peak of the Mexican government's war on drugs. That year, authorities recorded 22,409 homicides.

Unfortunately, some observers think the Mexican state is fudging the numbers:

However, experts have cast doubt on the latest figures, saying the homicide rate is likely much higher.

Mexican security analysts Alejandro Hope told AP news agency that the figure is based on the number of murder investigations opened last year, not the number of victims.

Hope added that it also doesn't take into account that a killing may result in more than one victim. He placed the homicide rate closer to 24 per 100,000 inhabitants.

According to the official stats in recent years, the homicide rate in Mexico hit 22.6 per 100,000 in 2011, and then declined after that. If critics are right, and the current rate is near 24 per 100,000, that would be a new peak.1

By comparison, the homicide rate in the United States was 5.3 per 100,000 in 2016 (the most recent data available) ranging from 1.3 per 100,000 in New Hampshire to 11 per 100,000 in Louisiana.

Homicide rates vary far more wildly in Mexico, with rates ranging from...

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