Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is pushing the United States to adopt stricter gun laws after several Mexican nationals died in a mass shooting in El Paso.
A gunman entered an El Paso Walmart on Saturday and went on a shooting spree that killed 22 people and left at least 24 others injured. The alleged gunman is in police custody.
“We’re very respectful of what other governments decide, but we think that these lamentable events that occurred in the United Sates should lead to reflection, analysis and the decision to control the indiscriminate sale of arms,” López Obrador said at a Monday press conference.
“It is not our disposition to involve ourselves in the internal affairs of any country, but this topic should be considered again because it affects many people, in this case Americans as well as Mexicans,” López Obrador said.
The El Paso shooter posted a manifesto online shortly before he began his killing spree. The four-page document contained racist language against Hispanic people.
At least eight Mexican citizens died in the attack and several more were injured. Officials are investigating the murders as a hate crime.
López Obrador’s calls to the U.S. comes as his own nation is struggling to deal with rampant murders driven by cartel-related violence. The total number of murders committed in Mexico broke a record for the second year in a row in 2018. Mexican officials launched 33,341 murder probes last year, a 33% spike.