I've heard stories from my older relatives about guns being extremely common here in Mexico. This was obviously an effect of the revolutionary war, which was fought mostly by volunteer armies. It makes sense all those people kept using guns after the war, and that they taught their children to use guns
However none of those old relatives owns a gun today, and neither does anyone else I know. To buy a gun you have to go to the one gun store in the country, which is owned by the army, and you have to pass all their tests which I'm told are quite strict, and even then they'll only sell you a revolver or a hunting rifle
Clearly Mexico went through a very radical change in gun culture, but no one can tell me when it happened nor how
I've asked my grandparents when and why did people stop buying guns, or when did people stop selling them, and they are not sure. I've asked them when did the law change to make gun ownership more regulated, but again they don't know
I'm baffled. How did Mexico change so much in regards to gun ownership?
edit: Let me give more concrete examples. These come from my family, which is obviously a narrow perspective, but it is the one I have
My grandmother tells me all the men in her family had guns when she was a little girl. She tells me her father always carried two guns because he was ambidextrous and boasted of being able to shoot very precisely with either hand
Her brother (my granduncle) tells me his father gave him a gun when he was fourteen because "a man must always carry a gun." In fact the phrase in spanish was "un hombre siempre debe estar enpistolado" where "enpistolado" is a word which specifically means "to be carrying a gun." They had a special word for it
They also tell me of meeting old "adelitas" (women who fought in the revolution) and that those women still had the habit of carrying guns everywhere they went, and were quite proud of it
Those are examples of the "gun culture" which it seems used to exist in Mexico but disappeared in the last 60 to 50 years. Probably other fellow mexicans have similar examples
Today whatever gun culture remains in the country is not as widespread as it once was, and it's either related to hunting as a hobby or it's heavily influenced by organized crime, and most people are not part of either of those things
edit: About the drug cartels
I have received a few DMs from people saying that there are still tons of guns in Mexico and the drug cartels have them, but that's kinda the point. Guns went from being something everyday people would have to something only criminals have. The only legal form of gun culture is among people who are hunters as a hobby, and most people are not criminals nor hunters
Also, there is no doubt the drug cartels get the vast majority of their guns form the United States. Mexico is at fault for the existence of the drug cartels, but without the United States they wouldn't have as many guns as they have today
TL:DR at the bottom
I am taken aback that a week has passed, and no answer has been placed so I’ll try to do it as it also interests me. There is an interesting essay from a Mexican historian Jose Manuel Ruelas [1] that dives deep into this topic.
As you mention, before 1970 Mexico and USA’s gun culture were quite similar. The Article 10 of the Mexican Constitution, inspired by the Second Amendment, was created in 1857 and has stayed active ever since, with a few modifications throughout the years.
We have to take into consideration the time in which the Article 10 was written: The US-Mexican war of 1848 stripped the nation of 55% of its territory [2] and the recent Ayutla’s Revolt (1854) overthrew Santa Anna, the president/dictator responsible for the loss of territory. It was critical to the Liberal government to strip the army of its power or risk a coup to reinstall a conservative ruler. Between 1856 and 1857, the army was ordered to reduce to 10,000 men and locally sourced National Guard similar to the US model was implemented. These changes were mandated in the Constitution of 1857, as well as the order to limit the political, economic and cultural power of the catholic church. As expected, the conservative party revolted and the Reform War broke out in 1858. [3] Bear in mind that the times between the two constitutions of 1857 and 1917 saw plenty of armed conflicts: Wars in the northern border, the second Franco-Mexican War, Wars in Central America, and the Mexican revolution.
Weapons and conflict was just part of life.
The key to your question as why this changed is found during the cold war. As the world attention focused on Vietnam, Mexican working class went on strike constantly due to the poor working conditions during the 60s: Oil and Railway Workers strikes that were suppressed by the military. Doctors were arrested or fired when did it too. The key players, though, were the students.
A student protest in 1966 at the University of Michoacan due to a increase in bus fare was repressed under the accusation that they were “Communist and professional agitators”, one student was shot dead. Things went south from there. As the government wanted to show off the “Mexican Miracle” to the world, the Mexico City Olympic Games were organized. To raise the capital, new taxes were implemented. As usual, people disliked the move and plenty of protest were held. “We don’t want the Olympics, we want revolution” was the motto. The IOC warned the Mexican government that if things continued unstable, the games would be relocated to Los Angeles. President Diaz Ordaz ordered the army to repress as much as needed. protests scalated until October 2nd 1968, at the Three Cultures Plaza, the Mexican army opened fire against the unarmed civilians. Marking one of the most controversial and bloodiest events in modern mexican history, the Tlatelolco’s Massacre. [4]
The ruling party, PRI, kept information shut, and in parallel, started training a paramilitary group called Los Halcones that was used to suppress violently the continuous student protests. But on 1971, they carried out the Corpus Christi massacre on July 10th, killing officially 120 protesters, including a 14 year old. The backlash from society expected by the government was not of lesser extent. So by October, the president Echeverria passed a gun control reform to cut out weapon supplies and to “ensure the tranquility in the country, to prevent any more blood baths” [1 pg 9] but by this moment, the damage was done and people were not willing to hand over their guns.
Many left wing groups rose against the government. The most infamous, September 23rd Communist League launched guerrilla attacks throughout the Mexican territory: -The Communist League killed Eugenio Garza Sada, famous Mexican Entrepreneur, during a kidnap attempt. -Kidnapped the English Consul in Guadalajara. -Raised the workers in Culiacan to assault the weapons cache of the Secretary of Agriculture. Were brutally repressed by the military. Other violent revolts and movements sprouted in the north and mostly in the south. The southern states of Guerrero and Chiapas stayed as the main area for left wing armed government resistance up to 1994. [5] During this two decades, there were still some private owned armories that had to abide by the Federal Law of Weapons and Explosives of 1972, but as a consequence of the Zapatist Revolution of 1994. The creation of the Arms and Ammunition Directorate ensured the monopoly of legal weapons commercialization in Mexico.
TL;DR: before the 70s Mexico had similar gun culture as USA, following a few armored revolts between the 60s and 70s backed by communist groups and fearing retaliation from the government ordered massacres of Tlatelolco and Corpus Christi (el Halconazo), a gun reform was passed on 1972 but not properly enforced. As many of the weapons in circulation went to the black market. After the Chiapas Zapatist Revolt of 1994, the last privately owned gunshops in Mexico were shut down.
References [1] Armas de fuego en Mexico [2] US-Mexican War 1846-1848 [3]Fuerzas armadas durante la Guerra de reforma [4] Tlatelolco’s Massacre [5] Mexican Dirty War