(AFP) – The US Supreme Court is to hear arguments on Tuesday in a $10 billion lawsuit filed by Mexico accusing American gun manufacturers of fueling drug trafficking and violence. Smith & Wesson and US gun distributor Interstate Arms are seeking a dismissal of the Mexican government’s suit, which has been winding its way through US courts since 2021.
A federal judge tossed out the case in 2022, saying Mexico’s claims failed to overcome the extensive protections offered to US firearms manufacturers by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). Passed by Congress in 2005, the PLCAA shields gunmakers from liability for criminals misusing their products. An appeals court revived the case, citing an exception to the law, and Smith & Wesson and Interstate Arms have sought relief from the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority and an expansive view of gun rights.
In its suit, Mexico, which is under mounting pressure from US President Donald Trump to curb drug trafficking, accuses Smith & Wesson and other US gun makers of engaging in a “negligent and illicit” trade that fuels drug cartel violence. “Mexico simply seeks to halt the unlawful flow of guns into Mexico,” lawyers for the country’s government said in a brief in the suit, which seeks $10 billion in damages. The case is “not a platform for a debate about Americans’ right to bear arms,” they said, referencing the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which protects the rights of Americans to gun ownership.
Lawyers for Smith & Wesson and Interstate Arms argue that the companies cannot be held accountable for the misuse of their products, and a ruling in Mexico’s favor would “eviscerate” the PLCAA. “When a company engages in routine business practices to supply lawful products to market, it is not responsible for downstream crimes involving those products,” they said. “Responsibility for any criminal acts by those who misuse the product rests with those criminal actors themselves.”
The Mexican government maintains that 70-90 percent of the weapons recovered at crime scenes in Mexico have been trafficked from the United States, and between 200,000 and 750,000 US-made weapons are smuggled across the border every year. Mexico tightly controls firearms sales, making them practically impossible to obtain legally. Even so, drug-related violence has seen around 480,000 people killed in Mexico since the government deployed the army to combat trafficking in 2006, according to official figures.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum warned US gunmakers last month they could face fresh legal action and be deemed accomplices if Washington followed through on a threat to designate Mexican cartels as terrorist groups. On February 20, the State Department went ahead and designated Mexico’s two main drug trafficking organizations, the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels, and others as foreign terrorist organizations.
Sheinbaum also angrily rejected an accusation by the United States that her government has an alliance with drug cartels. “We categorically reject the slander made by the White House against the Mexican government about alliances with criminal organizations,” the president wrote on X. “If there is such an alliance anywhere, it is in the US gun shops that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups,” she added.
Tensions between the neighbors soared when Trump, shortly after taking office, announced duties of 25 percent on Mexican imports, citing illegal immigration and the flow of deadly fentanyl. Sheinbaum vowed retaliatory tariffs before Trump agreed to a one-month pause—which expires on Tuesday—in return for Mexico deploying 10,000 more troops to the border. Last week, Mexico extradited some of its most notorious imprisoned drug lords to the United States, including a cartel kingpin wanted for decades over the murder of a US undercover agent.
– Chris Lefkow
© 2024 AFP
