One simple way to stop arming Mexico's drug gangs

The Sept. 13 editorial "Mexico's gun traffic" highlighted the alarming number of U.S. weapons that are arming Mexico's drug cartels.

Many of these military-style weapons never should come into the United States in the first place. A ban on imported firearms not used for sporting purposes was authorized by provisions in the 1968 Gun Control Act and enforced during the administrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. President George W. Bush quietly abandoned enforcement of the ban. As a result, the U.S. civilian firearms market is inundated with imported, military-style weapons. These weapons are often imported from Eastern Europe into the United States and then illegally trafficked into Mexico.

A return to enforcement of the import ban requires no legislative action and would be a win for both the United States and Mexico. Starving Mexico's brutal drug cartels of military-style weapons would make all of us in the United States and Mexico safer.

Eliot L. Engel, Washington

The writer, a Democrat representing New York, is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.