Mexico's $10b lawsuit against US gun makers given new life

There is only one gun shop in Mexico, and it does not do brisk business. That's because gun ownership is strictly regulated in the country, where civilians need government permission to carry firearms outside the home.

Yet tens of thousands of Mexicans are killed in gun violence every year.

This is partly because hundreds of thousands of firearms from the United States illegally make their way into Mexico annually. According to US government data, about 70 percent of firearms seized by Mexican authorities come from the US.

These firearms are often purchased legally at gun shows and gun stores in border states and then trafficked into Mexico. Officials say they are then used by criminal organisations, including drug cartels, to maintain their trade routes and fend off Mexico’s military and police forces.

To help fight this growing problem, Mexico has been trying to take US gun manufacturers and retailers to court.

Thanks to a recent appeals court ruling, its efforts have been given new life.

$10 billion lawsuit

In 2021, Mexico filed a $10 billion civil lawsuit against top US gun manufacturers including Glock, Smith and Wesson, Barrett and others to hold them accountable for gun violence at home and change the way they do business.

Speaking to TRT World, Mexico's co-counsel Jonathan Lowy said the litigation could yield positive benefits for other countries as well.

"If Mexico is successful, then the flow of guns to the criminal gun market will be significantly reduced both in the US and in Mexico, and other countries. That will save a lot of lives and reduce gun trafficking and reduce violence that spurs migrations and have many other benefits," said Lowy, who is also the president of the US-based nonprofit Global Action on Gun Violence.

But gunmakers have scoffed at the lawsuit, saying Mexico should do more to protect its own citizens, and that their companies have no legal duty to prevent crimes in other countries.

The case was dismissed in 2022 by a federal court, which cited a US law that shields gun companies from liability when crimes have been committed with their products (even if committed abroad).

But Mexico argued that this law doesn't protect them from everything. For example, it doesn't shield them if they are helping to facilitate crime.

In January, a Boston-based appeals court agreed with this logic, reversing the 2022 ruling. It said that Mexico's complaint "adequately alleges" that the gun makers "aided and abetted the knowingly unlawful downstream trafficking of their guns into Mexico."

The ruling is a major win for gun control proponents in both Mexico and the US, where the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) makes it difficult to file lawsuits against gun manufacturers.

Speaking to TRT World, law professor Timothy Lytton said the case's impact will likely reverberate beyond "who wins and who loses in court."

Lytton, who teaches at Georgia State University, added that the litigation could serve as a template for other plaintiffs going forward, turning the tide against gun manufacturers in court.

"They started suing opioid companies at the same time as gun companies, going after the way pharmaceutical companies designed, marketed and distributed their products. Those lawsuits did not succeed at first, (but now) they have become so successful that the pharmaceutical industry has changed the way it does business," Lytton said.

Challenges

However, the case remains a long shot for many reasons. Firstly, the litigation may be put on hold after gun manufacturers appealed the Boston court's decision to the US Supreme Court.

If the high court decides to take up the case, a second lawsuit filed by Mexico that takes aim at gun retailers in Arizona could also be postponed.

Additionally, Mexico will need to prove its accusations that US gun makers are knowingly designing, marketing and distributing assault weapons to drug cartels, which has helped spur violence, murders and kidnappings in the country.

According to Lytton, "it still remains a very high bar to prove that the manufacturers are intentionally facilitating illegal sales at the retail level. It's not enough to show that they know about it, it's not enough to show that they profit from it, or that they don't care one way or another."

Rather, the government has to prove that gun makers are engaged in violating the law by intentionally aiding and abetting the illegal sale of firearms, he added.

But Lowy told TRT World that the plaintiffs "are confident we can prove the allegations we made."

He added that many countries are suffering from gun violence due to the export of US arms abroad, and that leaders see Mexico's case as a ray of hope.

"The Caribbean countries are flooded with guns from the United States - Jamaica, Haiti, Bahamas. Canada has seen a growing percentage of guns coming from the US. In Central and South America, there are US guns. There's a regional if not global problem," Lowy said.

Mexico and gun makers will be back in court on March 12 as the judge considers whether to postpone the high-stakes trial, pending word from the Supreme Court.