Mexico president urges US to take action on gun control

MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called Monday for the United States to “control the indiscriminate sale of weapons” after a shooting in Texas left eight Mexicans dead.

A gunman opened fire with an assault rifle on Saturday at a Walmart store in El Paso, which is located near the border with Mexico, killing a total of 22 people and wounding more than two dozen.

Lopez Obrador said neither Republicans nor Democrats in the US have done enough to protect people from mass shootings.

“If we look at things objectively, we have to say that the two main US parties have given little attention to gun control,” Lopez Obrador said in his morning press conference.

While Democratic politicians have long pushed for stricter firearms regulations, they have been stymied by Republicans with backing from the powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby.

“We’re very respectful of what other governments decide, but we feel that these unfortunate events in the United States require reflection, analysis and the decision to control the indiscriminate sale of weapons,” Lopez Obrador said.

He said his government was studying the possibility of accusing the suspected shooter, named in US media as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, of “terrorism” and requesting his extradition to face charges in Mexico.

Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard met with the families of the Mexican victims on Monday.

He named the victims as Sara Esther Regalado, Adolfo Cerros Hernandez, Jorge Calvillo Garcia, Elsa Mendoza de la Mora, Gloria Irma Marquez Juarez, Maria Eugenia Legarreta Rothe, Ivan Filiberto Manzano and Juan de Dios Velazquez Chairez.

El Paso is a US city of 680,000 people, some 83 percent of whom are Hispanic, and it borders Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez.