US Supreme Court will rule on Mexico’s $10 billion lawsuit against US arms manufacturers

The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday it will decide whether to block a $10 billion lawsuit Mexico filed against U.S. arms manufacturers and distributors. This lawsuit alleges that their negligent and illegal business practices caused bloodshed in the country.

The lawsuit, filed in Boston in August, names Smith & Wesson, Barrett Firearms, Beretta, Colt and Glock, as well as Boston-area wholesaler Interstate Arms.

The Mexican government says it wants to “end the enormous harm that the defendants are causing by actively facilitating the illegal trade of their weapons to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico.”

Mexico says 70% of weapons smuggled into Mexico come from the US, according to the State Department. In 2019 alone, at least 17,000 homicides were linked to trafficked weapons.

Alejandro Celorio, legal adviser to the Mexican government, has said that the damage caused by the traded weapons would be equivalent to 1.7% to 2% of Mexico’s GDP.

But the firearms industry, through its U.S. lobbying body, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, has said the allegations in the lawsuit are “baseless.”

“The Mexican government is responsible for the rampant crime and corruption within their own borders,” said Lawrence Keane, the group’s senior vice president and general counsel, when the lawsuit was filed in 2021.

A number of lower court decisions have been made in this case. It was initially dismissed by a district court and then revived by the first U.S. Court of Appeals. The gunmakers appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, arguing that they followed legal practices and that the matter is not a matter for U.S. courts.

In August, U.S. District Judge Dennis Saylor dismissed the case against six of the eight companies, ruling that Mexico had not provided sufficient evidence that the violence in the county was caused by negligence by the U.S. gun manufacturer.

Now the Supreme Court has agreed to the gun makers’ request. Lawyers for Mexico defended the rationale of the appeals court ruling, arguing that it was premature for the Supreme Court to hear the case.

Mexico claims that U.S. gun makers know that the chain from manufacturer to distributor to dealer ends with sales to “straw buyers” who in turn sell them to the cartels, especially military-style weapons with serial numbers that are easily erased.

Attorneys for Smith & Wesson claim Mexico is trying to use the U.S. legal system to bankrupt the U.S. firearms industry based on a “novel and far-fetched” legal claim. They claim that they are no more responsible for what dealers do than Budweiser is for a liquor store that sells beer to a minor.

Mexico is not the only country claiming that US weapons have a destabilizing influence. A U.N. report in January estimated that half a million legal and illegal weapons have flowed into Haiti since 2020.

The US State Department has said it is planning a new police unit in Haiti to tackle weapons entering the country, which continues to be destabilized by gang violence.