What is Mexico's gun ownership policy and gun laws?

I know people who have hunting rifles here in Mexico. You will occasionally see people outside on their bicycles and with a rifle on their shoulder and they are out hunting pheasant or wild pig or something else to eat. I have not seen anybody who have pistols other than the police.  

 

(The common pheasant, a game bird in Mexico, pictured.)

I know people who have hunting rifles here in Mexico. You will occasionally see people outside on their bicycles and with a rifle on their shoulder and they are out hunting pheasant or wild pig or something else to eat. I have not seen anybody who have pistols other than the police.  

 

(The common pheasant, a game bird in Mexico, pictured.)

In Mexico we’re not accustomed to using guns. It’s very rare to find a regular family that has guns at home.
 
In order to have a weapon you have to have authorization from the government and I believe that there are certain weapons that are for the exclusive use of military and that no individuals can have. But in the general terms, I think that if you want to have a weapon, you can. However, it’s the cultural norm not to have one.  

 

In Mexico we’re not accustomed to using guns. It’s very rare to find a regular family that has guns at home.
 
In order to have a weapon you have to have authorization from the government and I believe that there are certain weapons that are for the exclusive use of military and that no individuals can have. But in the general terms, I think that if you want to have a weapon, you can. However, it’s the cultural norm not to have one.  

 

( Mexican historical figure, Pancho Villa, pictured.)

Once you leave the cities and/or the tourist areas of Yucatan, Q. Roo and Campeche and you start traveling on secondary roads, especially on the weekends, you will see numerous men on bicycles with 16 or 20 gauge shotguns over their shoulders. All of the shotguns are single shot.

 

The hunters often work in groups with the objective being a deer. They often have their dogs with them.  When they hunt in groups, the make a very large circle and work their...

Once you leave the cities and/or the tourist areas of Yucatan, Q. Roo and Campeche and you start traveling on secondary roads, especially on the weekends, you will see numerous men on bicycles with 16 or 20 gauge shotguns over their shoulders. All of the shotguns are single shot.

 

The hunters often work in groups with the objective being a deer. They often have their dogs with them.  When they hunt in groups, the make a very large circle and work their way to the center, driving any game ahead of them. A deer is the best with a javalin coming in second and just about any bird or iguana bringing up the rear. These guys are not sport hunters, they are hunting for meat.

 

I had the opportunity to examine one of the shotguns up close and found that was handmade in a small village. The receiver still had file marks on it and the stock was equally crude. In some villages I have seen both single shot .22s and semiautomatic .22s.

The Mexican constitution guarantees the right to keep a gun in your home for self-defense. The guns must be registered with the military and there are calibers or ammunition, magazines, and weapons that a private citizen may not own or possess. The permitted calibers are .22, .25,, .380 auto and .38; not .38+P or .38 super. The calibers with restrictions for private citizens are .38 P, .38 Super, .357 Magnum, 9 mm, 10 mm, 40 mm, 45 mm, and 44 magnum. Private citizens may also not own any...

The Mexican constitution guarantees the right to keep a gun in your home for self-defense. The guns must be registered with the military and there are calibers or ammunition, magazines, and weapons that a private citizen may not own or possess. The permitted calibers are .22, .25,, .380 auto and .38; not .38+P or .38 super. The calibers with restrictions for private citizens are .38 P, .38 Super, .357 Magnum, 9 mm, 10 mm, 40 mm, 45 mm, and 44 magnum. Private citizens may also not own any semi-automatic military style rifles such as AK47s, those that shoot .223 rounds and 7.62 x 39 rounds.   The .380 auto is legal because, technically, it is 9 millimeter short, while the 9 mm is not permitted.
 
There is one gun store in all of Mexico, in Mexico City, where you have to file paperwork to receive permission to buy a gun and receive a transportation permit to transport it back to your house.  If you legally have a weapon, you can buy ammunition for your weapon.
 
There are two additional ways you can also own a gun.  One is to be a member of a gun club.  With that gun club membership, you can buy more guns, buy ammunition for those guns, and have permission for a certain number of days per week to transport the weapon from between your house to the gun club and back. Another way to legally own a gun is to have hunting permission, with which you can transport the weapon between your house and where you’re going to hunt, and you get to pick a few different states within which to be able to transport the weapon, which has to be unloaded in the trunk of your car.
 
In a recent case of a gentleman who got caught bringing guns into Mexico, there were several issues.  I believe one was that one or more of the guns were of a prohibited caliber. Also, you need to declare all your guns you’re bringing (importing) into Mexico. It can be easier to purchase weapons in Mexico because you don’t have to worry about exporting from the US and then importing into Mexico and declaring. However, it is not a good idea to buy guns from the police or from a private party unless they have registered that firearm with the military. The reason is that, sometimes, the police will confiscate guns from people they have arrested or detained and sell that same gun to a private citizen.  If you purchase that gun and you shoot somebody with it even in self defense and they do a ballistics test and find out that gun was used in a murder two or three years ago, they could easily conclude that you have the murder weapon, so you must be the murderer.  And the police are not likely to say, “Yes, we illegally sold the weapon to a person that we took off a detainee.”
 
If a client wants to buy a gun from a private party and that private party swears that they brought it in or they smuggled it in from the US, we advise our clients to have the private party seller take the gun to a military base and register the gun in their name.  Then, once the gun is registered in the seller’s name, the seller can transfer it to our client. That way there’s a record of the gun in the other person’s name prior to the purchase by our client, and if there’s a problem, it can be proven that our client wasn’t the person who used the gun in a crime prior to their purchase.  

 

(Drawing of a Glock, pictured.)

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Gun possession is regulated in Mexico. A special permit from the federal government is needed to own a firearm.
 
Only very limited types of guns are authorized, which must be for personal use at home for self-defense, but there are exceptions for hunters. 

Gun possession is regulated in Mexico. A special permit from the federal government is needed to own a firearm.
 
Only very limited types of guns are authorized, which must be for personal use at home for self-defense, but there are exceptions for hunters. 

Mexico strictly regulates gun ownership but with the proper permit firearms can be purchased and held within the home for personal protection. Caliber, chamber/magazine capacity, and barrel length are restricted. More liberal temporary regulations apply toward sport and hunting purposes. 

 

Mexico strictly regulates gun ownership but with the proper permit firearms can be purchased and held within the home for personal protection. Caliber, chamber/magazine capacity, and barrel length are restricted. More liberal temporary regulations apply toward sport and hunting purposes.