Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I found this to be a fascinating and thoroughly detailed exploration of the illegal gun trade both in the USA and how this impacts on those in Mexico and the wider world. Grillo focuses on the 'Iron River' primarily, that is the flow of guns between the US over the border into Mexico and into the hands of cartels. He makes his own opinions on gun laws and the trafficking of weaponry clear, but doesn't allow it to cloud the objective way in which he discusses the topics and I thought that the information in this book was incredibly well displayed. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book for anyone with an interest in the gun trade or the wider history of gun violence.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Much has been written about America’s relationship with guns, the ease by which Americans can buy guns, and in recent years, how this has fed into the never-ending roll-call of massacres (and here we have several weird euphemisms, such as “active shooters”). So people might be mistaken for assuming that they do not need yet another book on the subject, which would be wrong. Because the author of Blood Gun Money is not so interested in Americans and their guns as he is in the industry and how it feeds the narco-wars of Latin America and the gang violence which blights the projects of the inner cities. Because it turns out the legal arms industry fuels, and indeed supports, a massive illegal trade which the author calls the iron river.

Ioan Grillo proves definitely in this book that the iron river is the source of many of the criminal guns in Latin America today. What might be a surprise to readers is that most of the countries of Latin America have far stricter gun ownership laws than the US does. It’s difficult for someone to legally purchase a gun in Mexico. So what the Mexican cartels do is they get people to buy all the guns they need in the US and smuggle them across the border. And business is booming.

The NRA is (unsurprisingly) a villain in all this. By choking off even sensible gun control - such as background checks on private sales - they ensure that not only can criminals and those with serious mental health issues purchase firearms, but people can buy them for the cartels. It’s also incredibly easy to recruit straw buyers - people who buy multiple guns at once from gun shops on the criminals’ behalf - and to rob gun stores. A dirty truth is the arms industry doesn’t want to stop this. Guns are non perishable, so apart from a few serious collectors and those who truly believe an apocalypse is coming and thus they have to have an arsenal, most people buy one or two guns and then have them for years. So how does the arms industry stay afloat? Well, the criminal economy subsidises them, how else to explain why there’s more gun stores in border states? It’s not just Latin America either. There’s an internal trade, states with tougher gun control having weapons smuggled into them from more libertarian states, which undermines efforts by anyone to toughen up the law.

Grillo travels to various locations to demonstrate all this - talking to gun manufacturers, FBI and ATF agents, and criminals. He visits the ATF gun tracing center in West Virginia, which despite being hampered by ludicrous legislation which prevents them from holding any records or registers (again, courtesy of the NRA, who really has much blood on its hands) proves repeatedly the source of weapons which turn up in killings in Mexico and elsewhere. All this brings colour to the statistics, but it’s the data which proves his case, and there’s just so much evidence.

This is an eye-opening read, though quite depressing, because you know as a reader that it’s unlikely to register with the US electorate. Trump and others (the Democrats play this game as well) bemoan illegal immigrants and drugs coming north, while turning a blind eye to the export of weapons which kill and maim. Yes, the ATF arrests and prosecutes people (and if the NRA are a villain of the piece, the ATF really are unsung heroes) but sentences are far too low, and the political will is just not there to do more.

To be fair to the Democrats, Biden has pledged to plug some of these legislative holes and we’ll have to see if he manages it, because this book shows America needs to do so.

This book was informative, engrossing and captivating. As someone outside the US and Mexico I learnt a lot. The anecdotes were hear wrenching.