Michigan’s Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, dropped a familiar line this week that gun owners have heard before. On The Moment Podcast with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos, he said American-manufactured guns are responsible for a lot of the cartels. He rejected using troops or drones south of the border and called for working diplomatically with Mexican counterparts instead.
His Past Record on Guns
That framing lands differently when you look at his record. Back in his 2018 run for Michigan governor, El-Sayed backed an assault weapons ban, red flag laws, and tighter rules on who can own what. Older clips that surfaced this year showed him floating the idea of tweaking the Constitution so the right to bear arms becomes a right to healthcare. His campaign has said past comments don’t reflect current views, but the pattern of pointing at guns first is hard to miss.
The Real Numbers on Guns Crossing the Border
Cartels do get plenty of guns from the U.S. market. ATF data shows that from 2020 through 2024, about 68 percent of firearms recovered in Mexico and traced had a U.S. source—mostly handguns and long guns bought through straw purchasers and then smuggled across the border. Border states like Texas and Arizona show up heavy in those traces. GAO reports put the annual flow in the hundreds of thousands. That’s real trafficking, and it fuels violence on both sides.
Why Blaming the Guns Misses the Point
But calling American guns the reason the cartels rose skips the bigger picture. Cartels exist because of demand for drugs, corruption in Mexico, and weak institutions. Fentanyl and other synthetics move north in massive quantities; guns are tools, not the business model. The Trump administration has treated them as terrorist organizations, hitting finances with sanctions on Sinaloa factions and pushing coordinated border operations. El-Sayed’s answer is to ask Mexican officials what flow of guns turns into cartel behavior and address our side. That sounds cooperative until you notice he has also pushed to abolish ICE.
What This Means for Michigan Gun Owners
For a lot of Michigan voters, especially those who own firearms for hunting, sport, or defense, this lands as the same old story: blame the guns, ignore the criminals who use them, and hope diplomacy handles transnational gangs that already operate like armies. Straw purchases and smuggling are crimes that law enforcement can target without rewriting the Second Amendment. Shops that sell legal guns to law-abiding buyers aren’t running the Sinaloa Cartel.