U.S. Gun From Arizona Used in Colombian Assassination Attempt: A Grim Export of American Firepower
A U.S.-sourced weapon, protected by America’s gun lobby, nearly killed a presidential candidate in Colombia — exposing the global consequences of lax American gun laws.
BOGOTÁ — The brazen assassination attempt on Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay has taken a chilling new turn: the weapon used to shoot the potential presidential contender was purchased in the U.S. state of Arizona, Colombian authorities revealed this week.
Uribe, 39, remains in critical condition after being shot in the head during a campaign event in Bogotá last Saturday. The attack, captured on video, sent shockwaves through a nation already scarred by decades of political violence. But now it is reverberating far beyond Colombia’s borders — straight back to America’s gun industry.
The 9mm pistol used in the attack was traced to a legal purchase in Arizona, Colombia’s national police confirmed. How the weapon traveled from an Arizona gun store to the hands of a teenage shooter in Bogotá is now the focus of an urgent international investigation. The ease with which American firearms cross borders — often into the hands of cartels, militias, and assassins — has long been a quietly acknowledged scandal. This attack has now put that reality in the global spotlight.
“American guns are fueling violence not only in the U.S., but across Latin America,” said a Colombian security official, speaking on background. “When U.S. politicians refuse to pass common-sense gun control, they are arming killers worldwide.”
A Political Family Targeted
Miguel Uribe, a member of the right-wing Democratic Center party, was shot while addressing a crowd in a public park. Doctors at Bogotá’s Santa Fe Foundation hospital reported that he remains in grave condition and largely unresponsive to treatment.
Uribe is no stranger to Colombia’s violent history. His grandfather, Julio César Turbay, served as president from 1978 to 1982. His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 during a failed rescue mission after being kidnapped by a group tied to notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Now, another chapter of bloodshed has been written into his family’s story — with a weapon bought under the protection of America’s gun lobby and Republican lawmakers who block international arms tracing agreements.
A Troubled Shooter, a Broken Pipeline
The suspected shooter is a teenage boy who had participated in a government-run “Youth for Peace” program meant to steer at-risk youth away from crime. Colombian President Gustavo Petro confirmed the boy was in the program two months ago but reportedly exhibited a combative personality.
The shooter remains under medical care and has not yet been formally interrogated. Under Colombian law, the minor faces up to eight years in a rehabilitation center — a sentence many see as inadequate given the gravity of the crime.
Authorities are pursuing several leads regarding the motive. Colombian Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo said it could have been an attack on the opposition, an effort to destabilize the government, or an act by illegal armed groups reacting to the peace process.
Yet one fact is already clear: without easy access to American guns — and the U.S. political class’ refusal to clamp down on international gun trafficking — this shooting may never have happened.
Exporting America’s Gun Crisis
This case underscores the cross-border consequences of America’s uniquely permissive gun culture. Arizona is one of several states where gun regulations are notoriously lax, thanks in large part to decades of lobbying by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Republican lawmakers.
“Right-wing politicians in the U.S. defend a so-called right to bear arms with no accountability,” said a Colombian human rights activist. “Now we see where that leads: to foreign assassination attempts, to the arming of teenagers, to the destabilization of our democracy.”
The U.S. government has faced growing calls from Latin American leaders to stem the flow of guns southward. Yet efforts to expand firearm export oversight have repeatedly stalled in Congress — blocked by the very lawmakers who claim to champion “law and order.”
The gun used to shoot Miguel Uribe should serve as a wake-up call: America’s failure to control its gun market is not just an American problem anymore. It is a global one.
