Turns the familiar story of trafficking across the US-Mexico border on its head, looking at firearms smuggled south from the United States to Mexico and their ricochet effects.

American guns have entangled the lives of people on both sides of the US-Mexico border in a vicious circle of violence. After treating wounded migrants and refugees seeking safety in the United States, anthropologist Ieva Jusionyte boldly embarked on a journey in the opposite direction—following the guns from dealers in Arizona and Texas to crime scenes in Mexico.

An expert work of narrative nonfiction, Exit Wounds provides a rare, intimate look into the world of firearms trafficking and urges us to understand the effects of lax US gun laws abroad. Jusionyte masterfully weaves together the gripping stories of people who live and work with guns north and south of the border: a Mexican businessman who smuggles guns for protection, a teenage girl turned trained assassin, two US federal agents trying to stop gun traffickers, and a journalist who risks his life to report on organized crime. Based on years of fieldwork, Exit Wounds expands current debates about guns in America, grappling with US complicity in violence on both sides of the border.

Awards

Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America

R.R Hawkins Award, Association of American Publishers

PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences, Association of American Publishers

LASA-México Best Book in Social Sciences, Latin American Studies Association

Luciano Tomassini Latin American International Relations Book Award Honorable Mention

Reviews

"Traces the deadly pipeline of assault weapons into the hands of organized crime."

— Rolling Stone

"An extraordinarily brave researcher, [Jusionyte] spent years getting to know gun runners, members of critical gangs, law enforcement officials on both sides of the border, and the journalists and community members who have witnessed the terrible toll of U.S.-made guns in Mexico. . . . In her epilogue, Jusionyte makes suggestions for enlightened policies to mitigate the plague of gun violence in Mexico and the ‘border crisis’ caused by people fleeing repression and extortion."

— The Progressive

"It is a must-read in a conversation that is surely to continue heating up."

— The Daily Beast

"A deep dive into how and why guns from the United States are continually flowing into Mexico."

— WBUR's "Here and Now"

"A work of remarkable diligence, shrewdness, and empathy that follows the 'iron river' of firearms that flows from north to south; the violence this trade generates; and the players that keep it in motion."

— Harvard Radcliffe Institute

"The book’s success lies in the people she meets and the stories they tell…Jusionyte reports these stories richly and with great sympathy."

— Consequence

"Jusionyte was reluctant to start research into guns, but the primary accelerant of the cycle of violence and migration seemed just too obvious, and too little remarked on in the US, to ignore."

— London Review of Books

"The wound resulting from the flow of weapons from the US into Mexico reaches our societies' furthest nerve endings. Ieva Jusionyte explores this wound with mind-blowing courage and the most incisive scalpel. She writes with Didion-like poise, observational power, precision, and intelligence."

— Francisco Goldman

"Jusionyte investigates in archives, hospitals, prisons, and dark alleys; she interviews victims and criminals (operating both within and outside the law) to present evidence that the arms traffic that goes parallel to the 'war on drugs' is not a flaw or an accident but both a system of control and a business. Here it is, in black and white, the explanation for a United States operation that contemplates the tragedy of the Mexican people not as a problem but as an acceptable outcome. Exit Wounds is as relevant as a book can be; it sheds light on mechanisms at the core of our daily catastrophe."

— Yuri Herrera

"In this absolutely riveting account, Jusionyte follows US guns south across the border to uncover the stories of the people who buy, smuggle, use, seize, and sometimes even recycle them. Brilliantly told and bravely researched, Exit Wounds shows the full devastation of this flood of American-made steel—not only for the hundreds of thousands of people left dead, maimed, or missing but also for families, communities, and Mexican society."

— Peter Andreas

"A remarkable and chilling book. Jusionyte writes with urgency, brilliance, and grace."

— Jennifer Finney Boylan

Jusionyte directs our eyes beyond the pervasive political rhetoric about walls, razor wire, and buoys in the Rio Grande to the hidden world of gun smuggling. Heartbreaking, sobering, and troubling, Exit Wounds is an urgent call to those who want to fully understand the complexities and synergy between the United States and Mexico. Superbly written and impeccably researched, this book is simply exceptional."

— Alfredo Corchado

"Exit Wounds is a harrowing, intimate, and profoundly illuminating journey through the asymmetrical exchanges of guns, drugs, money, people, and the stories about them that together constitute the all-American borderlands between the United States and Mexico. Humanizing a host of urgent social issues, this is a vital book for our times."

— Lucas Bessire

"Compelling, disturbing, and powerful."

— Jason De León