Mexico opens two-front war on US guns 

WASHINGTON (CN) — Mexico is pushing the U.S. to stem the flow of illegal firearms fueling violence, drugs and migration across the southwest border.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum linked the tariff ceasefire to the U.S. government’s commitment to stop the trafficking of high-powered weapons, and next month, Mexico will ask for the U.S. Supreme Court’s endorsement on its lawsuit against gun manufacturers.

Firearms are tightly restricted in Mexico, which only has one authorized gun dealer. Mexican citizens must pass extensive background checks to purchase firearms, and Mexican law restricts the type, caliber, and quantity of firearms available for legal purchase.

Still, cartels have flooded the nation with illegal firearms sold by U.S. gun manufacturers. The Mexican government estimated that around 200,000 U.S.-sourced firearms are smuggled into Mexico annually.

Heavily armed cartels use military-style guns and other weapons to assassinate politicians, attack the military, kill and injure judges, journalists and police, and terrorize ordinary citizens throughout Mexico. The cartels traffic fentanyl and other drugs into the U.S. and spur migration.

“For the first time, the U.S. government will work jointly to avoid the entry of guns to Mexico,” Sheinbaum said during a news conference Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump did not acknowledge any deal related to gun trafficking, focusing instead on stationing the military along the border. The White House did not respond to questions about the agreement.

Sheinbaum was just the latest Mexican government official to pin illegally imported firearms on U.S. manufacturers. In January, the Justice Department reported a 25% increase in crime gun trace requests 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.

The U.S. government said the firearms were not part of lawful exports. Instead, criminals purchased weapons in the U.S. and then unlawfully trafficked them to Mexico. The report found that 82% of traced crime guns were recovered in a Mexican state with a dominant cartel presence.

Diplomacy is only one avenue Mexico is using to tackle gun crime. The nation sued U.S. gun manufacturers and gun dealers for deliberately and systemically supporting unlawful firearm sales.

“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,” Jonathan Lowy, president and founder of Global Action on Gun Violence, said. “If there were just safe, sensible standards for gun dealers, there would not be dealers who are supplying traffickers.”

Lowy represents Mexico in two lawsuits against the gun industry, including the case being heard at the Supreme Court in March.

He said about 90% of gun dealers do not sell into the crime gun pipeline.

“If you act safely, as most gun dealers do, you would not supply the crime gun pipeline,” Lowy said. “It’s only a small percentage of gun dealers who sell virtually all of the crime guns, and manufacturers have been told not to supply those dealers.”

The Supreme Court will decide whether Mexico plausibly alleges that U.S. gun manufacturers aided and abetted unlawful firearms sales to gun traffickers and that those unlawful sales harmed Mexico.

Mexico claims that cartels use straw purchasers to buy guns through licensed firearm dealers and then traffic them across the border. The nation says manufacturers and dealers should have been tipped off to illicit straw purchases through multiple sales to the same customers over a short period of time or bulk sales.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives routinely alerts manufacturers when guns they sell are recovered at crime scenes in Mexico.

Instead of avoiding straw purchasers, Mexico claims that manufacturers have increased their reliance on repeat and bulk customers. Manufacturers have also produced weapons to cater to cartels, including Colt’s special-edition handguns like the Super “El Jefe” pistol or the “Emiliano Zapata 1911” pistol, which comes engraved with the Mexican revolutionary’s dictum.

While Sheinbaum appears to be pursuing a policy solution to cross-border gun trafficking, Lowy said Mexico’s lawsuit isn’t intended to push gun policy in the U.S.

“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.”

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