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Guatemala has implemented a new arms and ammunition law. The law makes it much harder for citizens to own a gun. There is even a training test that the user must compete before they are able to purchase the gun. The law aims to make it harder for criminals to obtain weapons and give classification of who owns guns in Guatemala. The law also puts a cap on the amount of ammunition one is allowed to buy for their firearm. This law will hopefully lower the number of guns on the street and lower crime in Guatemala.

The widespread growth of violent crime in Latin America is only getting worse. This epidemic is resulting in drug trafficking, gun crime, kidnapping, gang warfare, and murders. This violence is said to be cause from factor such as poverty, abundance of guns,and lack of police and state helpings. This has become a drastic issue that is leading to thousands upon thousands of unnecessary deaths.

Several countries throughout Latin America have been fighting to end the continual violent attacks. "The More Guns, the more Violence" is one of the measures which will be discussed at the upcoming conference for NGO's. Over seven million rifles are produced each year and many of them are sent to Latin American countries.

In the first one hundred days of Barack Obama's presidency the issue between the US-Mexico border was being addressed. The discussions between President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderón ranged on issues from global climate change and immigration reform. However, the issue that is most pressing is the use of assault weapons in correlation to the increase in organized crime. President Calderón has been trying to manage illegal immigration into the United States through attempts to increase employment rates in Mexico. To add to this initiative to crack down on the immigration issues between Mexico and the United States there has been an agreement between the United States, Mexico, and other Latin American countries which is a $1.4 million Merida joint security plan where the usage of United States equipment, technology and expertise are used toward combating drug trade. With the ban lifted in 2004 by the United States of assault weapons the organized crime has increased significantly; therefore, the drug trade has been gaining sufficient hold in towns.