For ammunition, some customers came from two hours away. For handguns, a group of police officers rented a van and made an eight-hour trek. For a precision rifle, an insurance worker drove nine hours overnight.
There are only two legal gun stores in all of Mexico — making them destinations for customers from every corner of the country and an embodiment of Mexico’s conflicted relationship with firearms.
The Constitution enshrines the right to own them, and there are millions of weapons in civilian hands, with a black market flooded by American-made guns. But the two legal stores, military-run and tightly regulated, are emblematic of government efforts to better control Mexico’s guns.
Private security guards, sport shooters and others make strenuous trips to the stores, which look like a cross between a D.M.V. office and a small museum. Applicants need to present nearly a dozen documents at the stores — once they’ve waited a few months for approval to buy a gun.
Cristian Ulices Ocaranza Marquez, 32, a municipal police officer, rented a van with six other officers and drove eight hours from his home to Mexico City for guns. His state, Colima, has one of the highest homicide rates in the country, and he is barred from bringing his work gun home, so he applied for a handgun, waited three months for approval and paid $518. (The average monthly salary in Mexico is roughly $320.)
“Because of this job, my family is also in danger,” said Mr. Ocaranza Marquez, a father of two young children.
Although he wished that it would be easier for government employees to buy personal firearms, Mr. Ocaranza Marquez said it was “good that not just anyone could” — and that he had personally seen what illegal guns could do in his state.
Mexico’s tight restrictions are in part a reaction to a painful history of violence, from the conflicts of the 20th century to the high homicide rate today, which is largely driven by cartel crime in a handful of states. But they also reflect the country’s tangled relationship with the United States, whose own constitutional right to firearms have contributed to a steady flow of guns south.
The Mexican government has estimated that between 200,000 and 500,000 guns are illegally trafficked into Mexico from the United States each year. Many end up in the hands of organized crime, according to officials on both sides.
The problem has frustrated the Mexican government for years, and in 2021, it sued gun makers and suppliers in the United States, a case that is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Now gun trafficking has also become a key point in Mexico’s negotiations with President Trump, who has threatened harsh tariffs as he pushes Mexico to act against migrants and drugs. President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico has repeatedly linked the problem of drugs in the United States with guns in Mexico, and demanded U.S. action to stop the flow.
Mexican leaders have long raised that point, though it has become a priority under Ms. Sheinbaum.
David Pérez-Esparza, a former government security official, said that while Mexican customs is “clearly not” doing enough to stop guns heading into the country from the United States, their American counterparts — with better inspection technology at the border — aren’t either.
Much like the Second Amendment in the U.S. Constitution, Article 10 of Mexico’s 1857 Constitution says that “every man has the right to bear arms for his security and legitimate defense.”
But after a bloody revolution in the early 1900s, a new Constitution set down rules that said some weapons could only be used by the armed forces and that people had to comply with police regulations to carry guns in “inhabited areas.” After violent uprisings in the 1960s, the restrictions got tighter, specifying which types of guns could be owned by whom and where.
For Mexicans today, that means a trip to a highly secured compound, either in Mexico City or Monterrey.
From the outside, the Mexico City location looks like the many surrounding austere military buildings. It is open to the public for several hours on weekdays — as long as visitors follow the many security measures.
IDs must be checked and logged. Visitors pass through a metal detector and have their photo taken on the way in and out. Cellphones are left at lockers. Documents are checked at the door. Roughly 125 customers visit every day, while a quarter of that number visit the newer Monterrey store, officials said.
The documents include a gun acquisition form, proof of no federal criminal record, medical and psychological evaluations, a drug test, proof of your residence and employment, copies of your identification, birth certificate, tax number and, if applicable, your membership in a shooting club. There is also a $25 fee.
“If every supplier had a store in every state, who would have control?” said Col. Jesús Alfonso Nava Bustamante, who until recently oversaw approvals for buying a gun. “We maintain it here.”
The process has many requirements on purpose, he said, because, if not, “anyone would be armed.”
Most Mexicans are legally permitted one handgun (up to .380 caliber) for self-defense per registered address, and up to nine longer firearms (rifles up to .22 and shotguns up to 12 gauge) if enrolled in a shooting or hunting club that is registered with the military. Higher calibers are reserved only for official government use.
In part as a result of these laws, there are far fewer firearms here than in the United States, with about 20 million civilian guns in Mexico, mostly unregistered, compared with 400 million privately owned guns in the United States, according to the Small Arms Survey, a research group.
While gun ownership in Mexico is not unusual for people in rural or dangerous areas, according to Mr. Pérez-Esparza, the former government security official, he said it was generally frowned upon for most people to have a gun.
“It’s good that it doesn’t look good,” he added.
The sentiment is not universal. Eduardo Ignacio García Zavala, 32, who works in insurance but is a sport shooter on the side, had gone to the Mexico City shop to add a new precision rifle to his collection — and said he wished Mexico had the variety of weapons and calibers that were available in the United States.
Still, Mr. García Zavala said he would rather buy from the military than on the black market. And one reason is cost: He said the rifle he bought would have cost four times more on the black market, a calculation that can help counter the lure of the unregistered route.
“Acquiring a gun legally is very satisfying because I know I’m doing things right,” he said. “But there’s also a fear that you go out there, on the street, and anyone could be armed.”
The miliary shop in Mexico City is a simple arrangement. In one corner are benches for people waiting to be called to one of the many service windows. Rows of wood and glass displays line the rest of the store, each maintained by different firearm brands, including the American Colt, Austrian Glock, Italian Beretta and Mexican Mendoza.
All the guns sold through the military have a serial number and must be registered with the military. Unlike the United States, Mexico maintains a national registry that requires the buyer to provide a name, address and fingerprints.
In all, 145 brands of weapons and ammunition are available, said Col. Juan Rafael Martínez Benítez, who oversees sales. Last year, he said, the stores sold almost 20 million cartridges and 16,000 guns, a slight increase from 2023.
He said the shop is “completely nonprofit” and the military is simply the intermediary for sales for one simple reason: “So we have control.”
James Wagner covers Latin America, including sports, and is based in Mexico City. A Nicaraguan American from the Washington area, he is a native Spanish speaker.
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