As President Trump deploys the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border, justifying his decision with racially charged Tweets about flows of violence and drugs, widespread calls for gun control continue to fall on deaf ears in his administration.
Facts and statistics seem to matter very little to President Trump, but here are two meaningful tidbits for those who follow the facts on the complex debate over immigration policy: attempted border crossings dipped to record low numbers in 2017; support for various gun control measures has surged in polls in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting.
None of that seems to matter. While prominent Republicans in Florida have begun to wake up to changing popular opinion, President Trump continues to largely ignore the gun debate, focusing attention on a border that doesn’t need troop presence.
A $25 billion wall is an impractical and expensive fantasy in and of itself, but the tragic irony is that lax gun laws in the United States feed violence in Mexico. The commerce of violence flows across the border in both directions. As long as gun laws remain lax in the U.S., a wall will do little to change the relationship between U.S. gun policy and the violence in Mexico that President Trump seems to fear so much. Unfortunately, understanding the complexity of the relationship takes a level of policy nuance and mutual respect that the Trump administration sorely lacks.
