![]() Leila Navidi, Star Tribune A bridge over the Rio Grande joins Piedras Negras, Mexico, and Eagle Pass, "Everyone has a gun here in aīorder town," says owner Justin Salinas, right, with sales associated Eddie Hernandez. At WarTribe Armory, above, business is brisk. At center, a giant Mexican flag flying in Piedras Negras can be seen from almost anywhere Leila Navidi, Star Tribune A bridge over the Rio Grande, at top, joins Piedras Negras, Mexico, and Eagle Pass, ![]() Associates without criminal records instead did the gun-shopping, turning a profit in the process. "They are not a bad gun, just that they are not very popular in our market," Krause said.īut their compact size, capacity and price appealed to customers whose criminal histories barred them from buying the guns legally. In the Twin Cities, the line's sales have remained relatively low compared with the bigger pistol brands at stores such as Kory Krause's Frontiersman Sports in St. A sales associate there said he hadn't even heard of the pistol. Neither the MC2c nor any other Mossberg handgun was on shelves at the Academy sporting goods chain earlier this year. Yet every Mossberg pistol produced in Eagle Pass leaves the city. "Everyone has a gun here in a border town," said Justin Salinas, who opened WarTribe Armory shortly after returning home from the Army. Last year, more than 57% of background checks associated with a specific gun transfer were for handguns. Nationally, FBI background checks for gun sales soared to an all-time high of 39.7 million in 2020 and have remained above 30 million each year since - well above pre-pandemic highs. Gun merchants in the city say residents have been stocking up on pistols since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid anxieties about illegal immigration. The MC2c followed about a year later, billed as a bigger, higher-capacity version capable of firing up to 17 bullets - more than double its predecessor. Within this barbed wire-enclosed building, Mossberg in 2019 made its first pistol in a century: the MC1. Mossberg & Sons declined to comment for this article. "Investing in Texas was an easy decision," Mossberg CEO Iver Mossberg said at the time, noting that the state "honors and respects the Second Amendment and the firearm freedoms it guarantees for our customers." The state of Texas even chipped in $300,000 toward the company's last expansion. The Connecticut-based company joined an ongoing trend of gun makers moving their business from blue states to places perceived as more friendly to their interests. Mossberg & Sons' guns are made in Eagle Pass. "That was a turning point for Eagle Pass," said Morris Libson Jr., who leads the Eagle Pass Maverick County Economic Development Alliance. ![]() They've been churned out around the clock for more than 30 years, ever since Mossberg started producing firearms in this city of 29,000. Guns are plentiful on the Texas side of this divide. Neither man-made nor geological barriers can separate the shared culture of Eagle Pass, which is 97% Latino, from its Mexican sibling, Piedras Negras.īut a single sign at a bridge checkpoint marks a clear distinction. Traffic stood still on the bridge into the U.S., and migrants waded through river waters in search of asylum. Just outside the industrial park, families gathered at youth soccer and baseball fields to watch their kids play in the muggy night. The steady hum of production droned one recent evening, and flatbed trucks tore out of surrounding lots. And pistols, mostly 9mm, are nearly always the gun they find. ![]() Police in Minnesota continue to retrieve a record number of guns from crime scenes. And people injured but not killed by gunfire is at historic levels around the state - up 176% last year from 2019. Of the nearly 300 fatal shootings in Minnesota between 20, vastly more were specifically attributed to handguns than rifles or shotguns. Handguns, first bought legally, are most frequently the firearm of choice in the surging rate of gun homicides in Minnesota and nationally. Though assault-style rifles have captured the attention of lawmakers and gun control advocates, 017520MC is far more representative of what's behind the steady rise of bloodshed sweeping across the country. The story of this pistol's short, violent life, compiled from hours of interviews, hundreds of pages of court documents and review of surveillance and police body camera footage, is like that of thousands of legally purchased handguns that turn up in crimes across Minnesota each year. Purchased handguns used in crimes and the technological advances that make them more deadly than ever. An occasional series examining the rising levels of gun violence in Minnesota, the
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