Fight to rein in US guns goes international at SCOTUS 

WASHINGTON (CN) — Next week, Mexico will become the latest litigant to challenge the gun industry at the Supreme Court.

The United States’ southern neighbor claims that American gun manufacturers are aiding and abetting cartel violence and drug trafficking by knowingly selling firearms to red-flag dealers.

Jonathan Lowy, president and founder of Global Action on Gun Violence, said Mexico wants to move away from the game of whack-a-mole that results from targeting individual straw buyers.

“There is an infinite supply of people willing to risk illegal trafficking in order to make money,” Lowy, who is representing Mexico, said. “To solve this problem of the crime gun pipeline, you have to turn off the spigot of the pipeline, and that’s at the manufacturer level.”

Sometimes called the “iron river,” the crime gun pipeline traces sales of U.S. firearms that are illegally imported into Mexico and then used in criminal activity. Mexico says U.S. gun manufacturers are knowingly feeding into this cycle, facilitating violence and drug trafficking across the nation.

The Mexican government has long sought a solution to the illegal trafficking of U.S. guns. Earlier this month, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum linked the tariff ceasefire to the U.S. government’s commitment to stop the trafficking of high-powered weapons.

In January, the Justice Department reported a 25% increase in trace requests for guns used in crimes from Mexican authorities in recent years. Over three-fourths of crime guns recovered in Mexico are traced to four southwest border states: Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

Mexico sued seven gun manufacturers in 2021, seeking to pull the linchpin from the crime gun pipeline. U.S. gunmakers are an essential component of cartel violence, Mexico argued, because it maintains strict firearm regulations and only has one gun store in the entire nation.

Among the U.S. manufacturers being sued are Smith & Wesson Brands, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Beretta U.S.A. Corp, Glock, Sturm, Ruger & Company and Colt’s Manufacturing Company.

Mexico says the gunmakers sell to cartels through straw purchasers — third parties that buy guns legally from a licensed dealer and then traffic them across the border. The gun manufacturers not only know they’re selling to cartel dealers, Mexico claims, but they also deliberately and systematically support the unlawful trade.

“They have increased their reliance on ‘repeat and bulk customers’ — hallmarks of illegal straw purchases,” Mexico wrote in its brief. “And they have resisted measures that would make it harder for cartel traffickers to access firearms in this country.”

That argument is at the center of next week’s Supreme Court fight where the justices will decide whether U.S. gun companies intentionally aiding and abetting violent gangs in Mexico are a proximate cause of injuries to the Mexican government.

The gun manufacturers claim they’re immune from Mexico’s suit under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. The law shields law-abiding industry participants from liability for harm solely caused by others.

“In its zeal to attack the firearms industry, Mexico seeks to raze bedrock principles of American law that safeguard the whole economy,” the manufacturers wrote. “Indeed, on Mexico’s view, any manufacturer or supplier of a lawful good could face liability over the predictable criminal misuse of its products by downstream consumers.”

Gun manufacturers argue that Mexico’s attempt to link them to cartel violence is too attenuated. The companies are at the head of the chain — producing firearms and selling them to federally licensed distributors. To reach cartels at the end of the chain, the distributors must sell to federally licensed dealers, who then sell to criminals who smuggle them into Mexico.

“Mexico’s causal chain here is extraordinarily indirect,” the manufacturers wrote. “It rests on independent act after independent act, crime after crime, spanning an international border, all to link petitioners’ conduct in this country to the mayhem south of the border.”

The gun companies claim that Mexico’s suit would change how firearms are sold in the U.S. by banning assault rifles and limiting the size of magazines.

Gun violence advocacy groups who have filed similar suits against the industry warn that the companies want immunity from illegal conduct that foreseeably facilitates criminal misuse of their products.

“No authority permits rogue actors in the gun industry to flout the law with impunity. And with good reason: as these cases show, petitioners’ proposed license-to-crime would enable great harm,” a group of advocacy groups wrote in an amicus brief.

Mexico wants to keep its arguments outside of the political arena, however.

“This case is not about gun policy in the U.S.” Lowy said. “It’s not about the Second Amendment; It’s not about whether law-abiding Americans can buy guns; it’s not about whether law-abiding gun dealers and manufacturers can sell guns; it’s simply about unlawful and reckless practices that are supplying transnational criminal organizations in Mexico. That does not have any effect on lawful sales in the United States.”

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in Smith & Wesson Brands v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos on Tuesday.

Follow @KelseyReichmann Follow @kelseyreichmann.bsky.social