{"id":128573,"date":"2025-03-03T14:07:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T14:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/a-showdown-between-mexico-and-american-gun-companies-hits-the-supreme-court-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2025-03-03T14:07:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T14:07:42","slug":"a-showdown-between-mexico-and-american-gun-companies-hits-the-supreme-court-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/a-showdown-between-mexico-and-american-gun-companies-hits-the-supreme-court-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"A showdown between Mexico and American gun companies hits the Supreme Court – USA TODAY"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2212 A federal law that protects the firearm industry didn\u2019t stop the parents of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting from going after the gun maker.<\/a>
But in the first test of the law before the Supreme Court<\/a> on Tuesday, the justices are expected to cast a more skeptical eye on Mexico\u2019s attempt to hold American gun companies responsible for the violence caused by drug cartels armed with U.S.-made weapons.<\/strong>
This time, gun violence prevention groups worry the Supreme Court could side with gun makers in a way that would go far beyond this dispute between Mexico and American gun companies.
”People in the United States” are ”suffering, being shot, being killed,\u201d said David Pucino, legal director at Giffords Law Center,<\/strong> a gun violence prevention group. He worries the Supreme Court will take away a tool for going after clear law breaking by gun companies.
These suits seek compensation for injuries and are also aimed at promoting<\/a> safer firearm designs, keeping weapons out of the hands of criminals and placing part of the blame for gun violence on the industry.
Gun rights groups, on the other hand, argue that Mexico is trying to bankrupt the American firearms industry and undermine the Second Amendment.
\u201cMexico has extinguished its constitutional arms right and now seeks to extinguish America\u2019s,\u201d the National Rifle Association told the Supreme Court<\/a>. Mexico has only one gun store, universal background checks and issues fewer than 50 gun permits a year, according to filings.
And more broadly, business groups are worried that if gun makers are considered liable for gun violence in Mexico, it would invite all kinds of lawsuits against all companies \u2212 not just gun makers \u2212when their products are used in the wrong way.
The case arrives at the Supreme Court against a backdrop of strained diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Mexico.
President Donald Trump is imposing tariffs on imports from Mexico<\/a> to pressure the country to do more to stop illegal drugs flowing into the U.S.
Mexico says the flow of American weapons south of the border is hurting its fight against drug cartels.
More:<\/strong>Graphics show the avalanche of guns from US to Mexico<\/a>
\u201cWe categorically reject the slander made by the White House against the Mexican government about alliances with criminal organizations,” Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo wrote on social media<\/a> in February.<\/strong> The administration had accused Mexico of having an \u201cintolerable alliance\u201d with the cartels.
“If there is such an alliance anywhere, it is in the U.S. gun shops that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups,” Sheinbaum said.
Hundreds of thousands of weapons \u2212<\/strong> made by the manufacturers Mexico is suing \u2212<\/strong> are trafficked annually over the border.
Mexico says gun makers are designing and marketing weapons to appeal to cartels \u2013 including Colt\u2019s special-edition handguns like the Super \u201cEl Jefe\u201d pistol, a term used to refer to cartel bosses, and a pistol named after the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata.
Drug wars and the cartels:<\/strong>Exclusive: Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael Zambada kidnapped, flown to the US, lawyer says<\/a>
Despite being warned by the U.S. government about weapons sold to specific distributors and dealers ending up at crime scenes in Mexico, gun makers continue to do business with them, Mexico charges.
\u201cAnd they intentionally do all this to boost their bottom lines,\u201d Mexico\u2019s attorneys said in a brief.
Mexico wants an unspecified amount of monetary damages, estimated in the range of $10 billion, and a court order requiring gun companies to change their practices.
A federal judge in Massachusetts dismissed the suit, ruling it was barred by a 2005 law shielding gun makers from liability.
But the Boston-based 1st<\/sup> U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the challenge met an exception in the law and could move forward. Mexico,<\/strong> it said, had adequately alleged the gun makers \u201caided and abetted the knowingly unlawful downstream trafficking of their guns into Mexico.\u201d
More:<\/strong>Hacked data reveals which US gun sellers are behind Mexican cartel violence<\/a>
Mexico would still have to prove its allegations if the case goes to trial.
The fact that the Supreme Court wanted to weigh in at this stage is an indication that they don\u2019t think Mexico should get that chance.
\u201cIf I had to predict, I think there’s a pretty strong possibility they rule against Mexico,\u201d said Andrew Willinger, executive director of the\u00a0Duke Center for Firearms Law<\/a>. \u201cIt would be a little bit strange to take the case in this posture if they weren’t inclined to do so.\u201d
This is the first time the Supreme Court is delving into the Protection of Legal Commerce in Arms Act, the law Congress passed in 2005 following efforts by local governments to sue gun makers for the harms caused by gun violence.
In 2019, the Supreme Court declined to consider Remington Arms Co.\u2019s argument that the law prevented the parents of Sandy Hook Elementary School victims from suing Remington for marketing the military-style\u00a0rifle used in the mass shooting\u00a0“for use in assaults against human beings.”
The law allows suits if a gun maker knowingly violates another law \u2013 such as selling firearms to someone prohibited from having one \u2212 and that act is the \u201cproximate cause\u201d of the resulting harm.
The U.S. gun makers argue there are too many steps involved in the transfer of its weapons to cartel members to hold them responsible. Guns made in the U.S. are sold to federally licensed distributors who sell them to federally licensed dealers \u2013 some of whom illegally or negligently sell them to criminals who smuggle them into Mexico where they end up in the hands of cartels.
\u201cMexico\u2019s criminal theory thus rests upon a medley of independent criminal acts, spanning an international border,\u201d lawyers for the industry told the Supreme Court<\/a>. \u201cNo court has ever found proximate cause on such a remote theory.\u201d
The gun makers offer similar reasons for why they did not \u201caid and abet\u201d illegally gun trafficking into Mexico.
Mexico counters that by supplying weapons \u2013 some of which have been specifically designed to appeal to the cartels \u2013 to \u201cred-flag\u201d dealers, the use of the weapons to commit crimes was \u201cstarkly foreseeable.\u201d
The National Rifle Association told the Supreme Court that accepting Mexico\u2019s argument would lead to a proliferation of equally bogus lawsuits that \u201ccould destroy the firearms industry solely through litigation costs.\u201d
\u201cThis case exemplifies why (the 2005 law) was enacted,\u201d the NRA wrote in a filing.
Pucino, of the Giffords Law Center, said gun makers are hoping that when handed a test of the law by a challenger less sympathetic than the parents of the Sandy Hook victims, the conservative court will effectively neuter the law\u2019s exceptions so gun makers can never be held liable.
\u201cThey\u2019re trying to get the court to rule that the statute is even broader than it is on its face,\u201d he said. \u201cThey want even illegal conduct by the gun companies to be immunized.\u201d
Willinger, of the Duke Center for Firearms Law, said the court could rule more narrowly in a way would still allow domestic lawsuits in which the chain of events between the manufacture of a gun and the harm it causes is more direct than in Mexico\u2019s challenge.
\u201cAnd that’s where I see the real potential for there to be a more unanimous decision,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause the court has issued those types of decisions going back some decades, where it’s just said that \u2026 the chain is just too convoluted and we’re not going to allow liability to arise.\u201d
A decision is expected by the end of June.
Contributing: Lauren Villagran<\/em><\/p>\n

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