Murder & Mayhem

Apache gangsters fight police. Paris, 1904

The murder rate seems to be escalating in a number of big cities like Chicago, Baltimore and St. Louis. Pundits on the left blame guns and enact laws to make them more difficult to obtain. Pundits on the right blame the Democrats for their restrictive gun laws. I think all that is just noise in a pickle barrel.

I suspect that what is fueling the ramping up of homicides in big cities is a war between the traditional drug distribution gangs and new gangs backed by Mexican drug cartels. The Mexicans have made enough money getting drugs into the United States and now, like any good businessmen, they want to expand their reach. Being as the lion's share of the profits from dealing drugs is on the retail end, that is where they want to be. The old line drug distributors aren't going to give up without a fight, and given that there is no law to arbitrate this dispute, they are settling it the old fashioned way. All the arguing about gun laws is just noise. If you are involved in a war, which this surely is, you are going to get the weapons you need come hell or high water.