Mexico’s Two Authorized Gun Stores Highlight the Country’s Complex Relationship with Firearms

Customers often travel long distances to purchase ammunition, with some coming from locations two hours away. A group of police officers rented a van and undertook an eight-hour journey to buy pistols, while an insurance employee drove nine hours overnight to acquire a precision rifle.

Mexico has only two legal gun stores nationwide, making them central points for buyers from across the country and emblematic of the nation’s complicated relationship with firearms.

While the Constitution guarantees the right to own guns and millions of firearms circulate among civilians, many originating from the flooded black market of U.S.-manufactured weapons, these two military-run and strictly regulated stores represent the government’s attempt to impose tighter controls on gun ownership.

Private security personnel, sport shooters, and others endure demanding trips to these shops, which resemble a blend between a traffic department office and a small museum. Applicants must submit nearly ten documents after waiting months for their purchase permits to be approved.

Cristian Ulices Ocaranza Márquez, a 32-year-old municipal police officer, rented a van with six colleagues and drove eight hours from his home state of Colima to Mexico City to acquire firearms. Colima faces one of the highest homicide rates in the country, and since he is prohibited from bringing his service weapon home, he applied for a personal pistol, waited three months for approval, and paid $518—well above the average monthly salary in Mexico, which is about $320.