据路透社4月19日报道，美国烟酒枪炮及爆炸物管理局（ATF）数据显示，中美洲追回和追踪到的“涉案枪械”中，超半数来自美国，在墨西哥这一比例接近70%，而整个加勒比海地区80%的“涉案枪械”来自美国。
美国非营利组织全球反枪支暴力行动的伊丽莎白·伯克在华盛顿进步中心举办的一次活动中说："美国枪支像'铁河'般涌入，正在淹没南美国家。”
"It's called the iron river and it's flooding countries to the south," Elizabeth Burke of US non-profit Global Action on Gun Violence said at an event organized by the Center for American Progress in Washington.社会活动家约翰·林赛·波兰称，宽松的许可证规则和执法会推动武器的跨境流动，包括犯罪集团所需的军事级武器。
John Lindsay-Poland, an activist from Stop US Arms to Mexico, added that lax license rules and enforcement helped facilitate the cross-border flow of arms - including military-grade weapons desired by cartels.美国官方数据显示，2022年向拉丁美洲出口的合法枪支收入增长了 8%，其中大部分销往巴西、墨西哥、危地马拉和哥伦比亚。
U.S government figures show last year that income from legal firearm shipments to Latin America increased 8%, with most sales going to Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia.据英国《卫报》2021年报道，2007年至2019年间，墨西哥和五个中美洲国家缴获了超过17.9万支枪支，并追踪到美国的枪支商店和枪支工厂。墨西哥外交部认为这只是冰山一角，并估计在过去十年中，有200多万支枪支从美国流入墨西哥。
Between 2007 and 2019, more than 179,000 firearms were captured in Mexico and five Central American countries and traced to gun shops and gun factories in the United States. Mexico’s foreign ministry believes this is the tip of the iceberg, and estimates that more than two million guns crossed the Rio Grande over the last decade.这些武器来源于美国合法枪支市场，主要通过四种方式进入枪支黑市，包括：私人销售漏洞；雇佣无违法记录的人购买枪支；从枪支商店盗窃；以及出售枪械零件用于自制武器或“幽灵枪”。
The weapons originate in the legal US gun market. They then cross into a parallel black market through four main methods: a private sale loophole; straw buyers (people with clean records paid to buy guns); theft from gun shops; and the sale of parts to make un-serialized weapons, or “ghost guns”.枪支贩运者将这些枪支从弗吉尼亚州和佐治亚州等法律较宽松的州带到华盛顿和纽约等法律较严格的城市，加剧这些城市的枪支暴力问题。这些枪支还被藏在汽车和卡车里，越过2000英里的边境向南走私到墨西哥。
Traffickers take these guns from states with looser laws, such as Virginia and Georgia, to cities with stricter laws, including Washington and New York, which are suffering from sharp increases in gun violence. They also smuggle them south to Mexico, over the 2,000-mile border, hidden in cars and trucks.墨西哥政府在波士顿联邦法院对美国主要武器制造商和经销商提起诉讼，称美企违规向墨西哥犯罪集团销售枪支，引发流血事件，“为向贩毒集团非法贩运枪支提供便利”。
The Mexican government filed a lawsuit against major U.S. arms manufacturers and distributors in federal court in Boston, arguing their negligent business practices have sparked bloodshed in Mexico by marketing to the country’s criminal underworld, “facilitating the unlawful trafficking of their guns to drug cartels.”根据墨西哥政府的数据，2019年至少有17000起凶杀案与武器贩运有关。According to the Mexican government, at least 17,000 homicides in 2019 were linked to arms trafficking.