There is currently a heated debate surrounding gun violence and regulation in the U.S. in the wake of mass shootings last month in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., several months earlier, but little has been said about the rampant violence in Mexico perpetrated by criminal organizations armed with American guns.

The basic scenario involves a U.S. citizen who buys firearms, typically assault rifles, and then sells them off to someone else who then runs the weapons down to Mexico for criminal use.

“Easy and ready access to weapons in the U.S. has been exploited by organized crime in Mexico and used in some of the most gruesome violence you can imagine,” said Eric Olson, director of the Latin American Program at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. “We’re not taking a position on the Second Amendment — that’s just what we’ve observed from the data.”

via American Arms Reach Deep Into Mexico’s Bloodshed.