Book Review: Blood Gun Money

Ioan Grillo, Blood Gun Money: How America Arms Gangs and Criminals. New York: Bloomsbury, 2021.  ISBN: 978-1-63557-278-0.

 

Genre: nonfiction

Subgenre: business, true crime, history, politics, Latin America, United States

Format: hardcover

Source: Berea branch of the Madison County (KY) Public Library

 

In this book, the author provides a detailed and well researched look at how the United States, fueled by its gun obsession, arms criminal gangs and drug cartels thus adding to bloodshed, deaths, and violence not just in the U.S. but also in Latin America and other parts of the world. I need to note upfront that I started reading this book before the latest shootings in the U.S., the mass shootings in Atlanta, GA and Boulder, CO. However, as these events happened I found the book to be very relevant for mass shooters as well as cartel criminals do share common elements when it comes to how they acquire firearms. The author follows the gun trade from both sides, law and crime, to show how this trade so closely linked to the drug trade has turned the Americas into one of the most violent places in the planet. 

In 12 chapters, the author explores the issue and follows the "iron river" from the United States down to Mexico and other parts of Latin America. We see how guns and illegal drugs are closely linked; one can often be used as currency to get the other. Through extensive research and a lot of interviews, the author weaves an engaging, interesting, and moving story. His interviews range from top officials to sicarios to crime victims. The story is a complex story with many angles that the author balances well. 

In a book like this it would be easy to be overly emotional. The author strives to be as neutral as possible. I am not saying he is absolutely neutral, but he works to provide a balanced narrative. He avoids generalizations, and he seeks to present sides fairly and support material with facts. The book includes plenty of endnotes to show much of the research done for the book. 

The book is well written, and it is highly engaging. Once you start reading it, it is hard to put down as the author takes us from city streets to jungles and other places in between. The stories can anger and sadden decent people, and at times stories can be amazing. The situation at times can be fairly grim, yet the author tries to find some hope despite the horrors. He also offers some suggestions for solutions. 

Overall, this is an excellent and timely read. For those interested in the topic, this book is a must read. The challenge may be getting certain Americans to read it with an open mind, but despite that this is a book as many people as possible need to read. I definitely recommend it for both public and academic libraries. This is a book that gave me a lot to think about, and it is one I will promote in reader's advisory. 

5 out of 5 stars. 

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Additional reading notes: 

 

What the book is about: 

 

"This book is about America's 'iron river' of guns, the millions of weapons that flow from the legal industry to the black market, feeding criminals across the nation and drug cartels across the continent. It follows this river from the corners of Baltimore to the battlefields on the border, the factories of Transylvania to the gun shows of Texas, and the gun vaults of Arizona to the jungles of the Andes" (5). 

 

What the book is not: 

 

"Still, this book is not a rant against the Second Amendment or the right of law-abiding citizens to have guns" (8). 

 

A little "did you know?" 

 

"There is no specific law against gunrunning. Or to put it another way, U.S. law has sharper teeth to go after drugs than after guns" (12).  

A key question: 

"When law-abiding citizens keep hunting rifles locked in safes, they don't leave human corpses. But when gangsters, guerrillas, and terrorists are armed to the teeth, they unsurprisingly commit a lot of murders. The big question is whether we can slow that iron river to them and reduce the body count" (21). 

 

Colion, former gangbanger now non-violence activist, on why U.S. Government wants poor Black people to kill each other: 

"'I think that our race isn't needed anymore. I think Black people are beyond extinct. There is too much violence, too much to deal with,' he says. 'So let' dump guns and drugs in that hood. Let them finish each other off. You don't even have to drop a bomb on us and shit.' 

His feelings echo long-held theories about deliberately flooding guns and dope into African American communities to destroy them. Unless the situation stops being so dire, those ideas will keep being vocalized" (139-140). 

For the above, see also the scene from the film Boyz 'N The Hood where Laurence Fishburne's character, Jason "Furious" Styles teaches his son and his son's friend about gentrification (link to YouTube clip) and voices the theory as well. 

A common theme is how often the U.S. Government agents and agencies are corrupt and even doublecross those who help them. Detty an informant betrayed by ATF agents states: 

"Now, for the first time I was seeing them for what they were-- lazy, sloppy, self-protecting civil servants who cared more about self preservation and collecting a paycheck than doing the right thing" (242). 

On that theme, see also (links to my reviews of the books) American Kingpin, Friends of the Family, I Got a Monster (which the author mentions in this book. I have the book on my TBR list), etc. 

The hypocrisy of the gun lobby as exposed by the Fast and Furious ATF operation and scandal: 

"This gets into the deceptive arguments by the gun lobby. It was angry that ATF agents did not seize guns more quickly. But it is against empowering agents to seize more guns, or even know when there are multiple sales of rifles. It was furious about the ATF having knowledge about guns that went to Mexico and were used to kill. But it denies that generally there is a problem of guns going to Mexico and being used to kill. 

In other words, it doesn't mind if there is trafficking to Mexico. As long as the ATF doesn't know about it" (257). 

Why we should not routinely blame mass shootings on mental illness, according to the president of the APA (American Psychological Association) who made the remarks after the El Paso, TX mass shooting: 

 

"Research has shown that only a very small percentage of violent crimes are committed by people who are diagnosed with, or in treatment for, mental illness. The rates of mental illness are roughly the same around the world, yet other countries are not experiencing these traumatic events as often as we face them. One critical factor is access to, and the lethality of, the weapons that are being used in these crimes. Adding racism, intolerance and bigotry to the mix is a recipe for disaster" (303). 

 

The big paradox: 

 

"The United States churns out millions of guns but has the institutions to withhold the criminality, while having hot spots of violence and the terror of mass shootings. Latin America receives the flow of guns but does not have the institutions to withstand the violence. And drowns in blood" (323).

 

Books with similar appeal factors that I have read (links to my reviews): 

 

• Kilo: Inside the Deadliest Cocaine Cartels-- From the Jungles to the Streets. 
• Glock: the Rise of America's Gun. 
• Arms and the Dudes: How Three Stoners from Miami Beach Became the Most Unlikely Gunrunners in History. 

Glock and Arms and the Dudes are featured in the book's selected bibliography. Arms and the Dudes is also the loose basis of the recent film War Dogs. 

Other books the author mentions throughout the text (would have been nice if he had listed them in the bibliography. Links to WorldCat record). These are possible additions to my TBR list: 

• Moisés Naím, Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy.
• Misha Glenny, McMafia: Seriously Organized Crime. 
• C.J. Chivers, The Gun: the AK-47 and the Evolution of War. 
• Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg, I Got a Monster: the Rise and Fall of America's Most Corrupt Police Squad.
• Mike Detty, Guns Across the Border: How and Why the US Government Smuggled Guns Into Mexico: the Inside Story.
• Javier Valdez, Miss Narco: Belleza, Poder y Violencia: Historias Reales de Mujeres en el Narcotrafico Mexicano. 
• Valdez also has other books in this series including Levantones, Huerfanos del Narco, Con una granada en la boca, and Narcoperiodismo. I will likely read Miss Narco first, and then decide to read the others or not.

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This book qualifies for the following 2021 Reading Challenges: