Letter of the day: 'Gunrunner' series shows the need to reexamine policies

Thank you for publishing the four-part "Gunrunner" series this week and providing some awareness on the many ways America plays a role in Mexico. It is disheartening to read the figures included in your articles: 2,000 guns smuggled into Mexico from the United States each day; 23,000 Mexicans killed in the drug wars since 2006. The reality is that we are part of the problem more than the solution. Our relaxed gun laws allow people to buy very powerful and dangerous guns. Months later, these same guns are responsible for the death of someone's child, someone's parent or someone's friend. NAFTA and other trade agreements created an unequal economic situation with our neighbors to the south, leaving their people in poverty. Drug cartels have become a desirable employer because they provide what other opportunities in Mexico do not: a viable income on which families can survive. The United States has had a hand in creating the situation in Mexico, and we should examine how our laws and our economic policy have created the problems we're now working so hard to fight. KATELYN ENGEL, PLYMOUTH