Mexico has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against major U.S. gun manufacturers, accusing them of flooding their country with firearms used by drug cartels. Despite initial dismissal, a U.S. appeals court revived the case, allowing Mexico to proceed. The lawsuit claims these companies knowingly contributed to illegal gun trafficking, exploiting loopholes in U.S. laws. This legal battle has sparked intense debate over gun control and international law, with implications that could reshape how U.S. firearms companies operate globally.

Matthew Vadum from The Epoch Times reported that this week, Mexico petitioned the United States Supreme Court to allow its $10 billion case against gun manufacturers accused of flooding the country with firearms to proceed in lower courts.

Although some gun control activists applaud Mexico’s lawsuit, gun rights proponents argue that the foreign government is exploiting US laws in an attempt to harm the US weapons industry and weaken Americans’ Second Amendment rights.

The complaint was dismissed by a federal district court earlier this year, but the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit permitted it to carry forward.

Mexico’s fresh filing on July 3 comes after lead petitioner Smith and Wesson filed a petition with the Supreme Court on April 18 to reverse the First Circuit verdict. Co-petitioners include Beretta U.S.A. Corp., Glock Inc., and Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc.

Mexico’s brief contends that the First Circuit correctly found and that the petitioners “deliberately chose to engage in unlawful … conduct to profit off the criminal market for their products.”

The circuit court determined that Mexico’s case made a reasonable claim that the petitioners “deliberately aided and abetted the unlawful sale of firearms to purchasers supplying brutal cartels in Mexico” and that that country incurred injury as a result.

The gun producers are incorrect in claiming that the risk of being held “liable for negligence and public nuisance” poses “an existential threat to the gun industry.”

The First Circuit’s judgment came after a federal district judge dismissed the claim on September 30, 2022.

U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV in Massachusetts dismissed a lawsuit alleging that U.S. corporations were willfully undermining Mexico’s tight gun laws by manufacturing “military-style assault weapons” that were sold to drug cartels and criminals.

Judge Saylor determined that the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) of 2005 “unequivocally bars lawsuits seeking to hold gun manufacturers responsible for the acts of individuals using guns for their intended purpose.” The PLCAA was created to safeguard the sector from spurious lawsuits.

However, in January 2024, a three-judge panel of the First Circuit reversed, returning the case to the district court and allowing the litigation to continue.

Circuit Judge William Kayatta ruled that the PLCAA limited the types of actions that foreign governments can file in US courts for harm suffered outside of the United States, but that Mexico made a plausible claim that qualifies for an exception under the legislation. The exemption is for “knowing violations of statutes regulating the sale or marketing of firearms,” which is what Mexico charges firearms manufacturers of doing.

The First Circuit’s decision focused on the United States weapons industry. Despite strong rules that make it “virtually impossible” for criminals to purchase guns legally in Mexico, the country nonetheless experiences the third-highest number of gun-related deaths in the world, growing from fewer than 2,500 in 2003 to about 23,000 in 2019, Judge Kayatta wrote.

The rise in gun violence “correlates” with an increase in gun production in the United States, which began when the assault weapon ban expired in 2004. Mexico asserts that illegal gun trafficking into the country was primarily motivated by Mexican drug cartels’ desire for military-style firearms.

“For example, Mexico claims that between 70 and 90 percent of the guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico were trafficked into the country from the United States,” according to Judge Saylor.

During this “gun violence epidemic,” Mexico has had to pay for additional medical, mental health, and law enforcement efforts, as well as reduced property prices and earnings from business investment and economic activity.

He wrote that firearms businesses manufacture more than 68% of US guns that wind up in Mexico or between 342,000 and 597,000 guns per year.

The judge said that Mexico alleges the businesses are aware that their guns are trafficked into the nation “and make deliberate design, marketing, and distribution choices to retain and grow that illegal market and the substantial profits that it produces.” Mexico claims that the businesses build their rifles as military-style weapons to pander to the drug gangs.

In the latest brief, Mexico contends that the gun manufacturers’ petition to the Supreme Court is premature.

The district court has yet to address several legal concerns, including jurisdiction. This would be followed by evidence collecting and possibly a trial and appeal, the brief states.

“Petitioners’ challenges are best addressed on a developed factual record if it proves necessary to address them at all. That is why this Court routinely denies petitions seeking review of a suit at such an early stage.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and 26 other federal senators urged the Supreme Court to allow the corporations’ petition.

“Mexico’s lawsuit is an affront to the sovereignty of the United States of America,” the congressmen wrote in their May 22 brief.

“It has no place in federal court, and it attempts to dragoon American courts to subvert the policy determinations of the political branches of the U.S. Government,” the brief states, referring to the PLCAA.

Mexico is attempting “to impose its view of law, the right to bear arms, and liability protection on the American people,” the document states.

It is uncertain when the Supreme Court will hear the petition in Smith & Wesson Brands Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos. To advance to the oral argument stage, at least four of the nine justices must vote in favor of granting the petition.

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