Mexico sues US gun manufacturers over arms trafficking
The Mexican government has sued some of the biggest US gun manufacturers, accusing them of fuelling bloodshed through reckless business practices.
The lawsuit alleges that the companies knew they were contributing to illegal arms trafficking, which has been linked to many deaths.
Officials say Mexico is seeking as much as $10bn (£7.2bn) in compensation, though any amount would be decided by the court.
They include Smith & Wesson and Barrett Firearms, among others. The BBC has contacted both companies for comment.
The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in the US state of Massachusetts.
The gun manufacturers “are conscious of the fact that their products are trafficked and used in illicit activities against the civilian population and authorities of Mexico”, the Foreign Ministry said in a document related to the lawsuit.
Mexico said the companies had used “marketing strategies to promote weapons that are ever more lethal, without mechanisms of security or traceability”.
Note the section in bold.
The core premise of the Sandy Hook lawsuit was over Remington/Bushmaster’s marketing. That was how they ran around the PLCAA.
The Mexican Government is using the exact same argument that Remington just gave credence to by settling with the Sandy Hook families.
I said this was going to bite us in the ass and it just did in a very big way.
According to a Mexican government statement, criminal organizations buy thousands of pistols, rifles, assault weapons and ammunition in supermarkets, on the internet and at arms fairs in the US which are then used to commit crimes in Mexico.
The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that 70% of firearms recovered in Mexico between 2014 and 2018 which were submitted for tracing had come from the US
Mexican officials stressed that the lawsuit was not aimed at the US government. Mr Ebrard said he believed that President Joe Biden’s administration was willing to work with Mexico to curb arms trafficking.
This is insane horseshit.
When Biden was Vice President of the Obama Administration, Obama had Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious traffic guns into Mexico in the hands of the cartels.
Mexico is suing gunmakers in the US because guns were smuggled into Mexico, and the guy that did the smuggling was the boss of our current President, who Mexico is not suing and is in fact praising.
The civilian guns obtained and smuggled into Mexico are obtained the same way US gangs get guns, overwhelmingly through straw purchases or stolen. Of course, the PLCAA protects gun manufactures from liability under these conditions. But the Sandy Hook lawsuit was crafted to get around that and now that it was quasi-successful, Mexico is going to march right in and crush the firearms industry.
Do you honestly think that the Biden Administration or the State of Massachusetts is going to try and stop the corrupt government of a failed narco-state from bankrupting the firearms industry with a bullshit lawsuit?
I’m pretty sure Merrick Garland is having his staffers work on an Amicus brief on Mexico’s behalf right now.
Yes. Read about “Fast and Furious” in John Dodson’s book, if you haven’t already. Obama, Eric holder, Biden, and ATF knew exactly how many hundreds and hundreds of guns they were walking across the border. When Holder was called to testify on the Hill, he stonewalled and lied to congress. He remains the only attorney General that has been censured by congress. He was never arrested, nor was the Obama administration held to account for this repugnant behavior.
If Mexico wants to sue someone, they should sue Obama……
……I can dream, can’t I?
But, beyond that, the cartels get guns from countries all over the world. Why are they not suing China and Russia?
Pretty sure holder is still in contempt of congress.
Idk if i were these companies id say go fuck yourself and not even give it time of day.
Hopefully barrett stops all sales to mexico now like they did cali.
I’ll never buy another Remington product again. I’m glad they broke them up. I’m am really glad that Marlin is now under the Ruger umbrella.
I don’t need their ammo, goodbye green box.
There are more and better choices than ever before, so no one needs to buy anything from them.
Fine, your money your choice. No argument from me on that score. In fact I tend to agree.
But understand, this is bigger than Remington.
This is a foreign attack against a legally operating industry in the US. Not just one company, the whole industry. Because if this gets any traction at all, the entire US arms industry could be destroyed. (Except the parts that sell exclusively to the US and other governments, of course.)
You are aware that Remington ammo was acquired by Vista Outdoors and is now owned by the same company that makes Federal Ammo, Speer, CCI, Aliant Powder, and Heavi-Shot. You can not buy Remington ammo if you choose, but they have no relation to this Remington.
What astonishes me is how many normies buy this line of crap.
The cartels aren’t sending Jose across the border to arrange for a buy of a few hundred poxy semi-auto AR-15s. They have stupid amounts of money. They can buy -direct-. They can buy Chinese or Russian hardware. Or they can subvert a Mexican Army quartermaster (‘silver or lead, senor?’) and get military grade stuff made in the U.S.A.
Remember a while back, those cartel technicals with the heavy weapons mounted on them? Do people really think you can walk into Cabela’s and buy that stuff? Seriously?
That is the failure of the gun control logic. Why pay full price when you can get something that is good enough for pennies?
Do you really think the drug cartels want to pay $500 for a Mossberg, or $3,000 for a Barrett when they can get dozens/hundreds of full auto AKs from overseas for $75 each? Same thing for the aspiring rapper who just needs to pull off one (or maybe a few hundred) armed robberies before their career takes off.
@Toastrider: Yes, when I read “Guns Across the Border:, I was surprised at the “market” for semi-autos for a group that could buy full-auto.
Sure, some prestige handguns might have interested cartel jefes, but regular ol’ ARs? Doubt it.
Yes, as an example, my highly educated brother (JD degree) believes that one can, indeed, “just buy a machine gun” and waltz out.
Your brother is NOT “highly educated”. He’s “highly credentialed”.
Key words ” Which were submitted for tracing”. They do not tell us how many that was or what percentage of the total it was.
It also doesn’t indicate how many of those were salted into Mexico so they *could* be traced to the US.
Bingo. If there’s no reason to believe a recovered gun came from the U.S., they don’t submit it to BATFE for tracing. If they find an full-auto AK with Chinese markings, it probably didn’t come from America, so BATFE won’t ever hear about it.
What interests me is they’ve given up on the “95%” lie (it used to be “95% of guns submitted to BATFE for tracing came from the U.S.” — Priject Gunrunner and Operation Fast & Furious are believed to have been concocted to pad the statistics and nudge reality a little closer to that number) and are going with a more accurate figure.
Also, what about that other 30%? That would represent guns that Mexico thought might have come from America, but in fact did not. What’s the story on those, and how did they arrive in cartel hands, I wonder?
Fortunately, *nobody* in the Mexican armed forces, simply sells .gov stocks of (guns)(ammo)(mortars)(other destructive devices) to the cartels!
Totally! Never happen!(/sarc)
New gun advertising:
The new HKLockSW1191 is the safest gun imaginable. In fact, if you purchase this gun, all your friends will call you a sissy, and make you sit at the kids table. Comes only in pink with teddy bear logos on the grips.
I can think of a nice defense argument.
The products in question were sold in the USA. They were then allegedly smuggled into Mexico, in violation of Mexican law the enforcement of which is the responsibility of the Mexican government. So the trouble that plaintiff complains about it of its own making and due entirely to its own negligence.
That might work, except the lawsuit was filed in gun-unfriendly Massachusetts.
“…buy thousands of pistols, rifles, assault weapons and ammunition in supermarkets,… ”
Geez, the Shaw’s and Hannford near me never have guns or ammo.
Where are these supermarkets?
Fred Meyer?
If this manages to survive a motion for dismissal with prejudice S&W, Ruger et al get to make discovery motions that will be severely embarrassing to both Mexico and the Democratic party.
Also bear in mind that the gun trace factoid omits the critical datum that only 12% of guns seized in Mexico are submitted to the ATF for tracking.
That’s probably the 12 % belonging to people in arrears on their mordida.
70% of those 12% submitted for tracing to the FBI were because they were labeled “USA”.
So who’a going in on the $10 trillion lawsuit against Mexico for knowingly and willingly allowing criminal organizations operating within their sovereign borders to manufacture millions of tons of deadly illicit drugs, transport them to the U.S., sell them to addicted users, and destroy hundreds of thousands of American lives and livelihoods — all in violation of Mexican and international laws?
The Mexican authorities know who and where the criminals are and what they’re doing, and what the financial and human costs are, and it could be argued that they have a duty to put a stop to it, by both securing their northern border and shutting down the organizations on their soil. Hell, I’m reasonably sure America has offered help in doing both. But Mexico chooses to not do either.
IANAL, but it seems to me this is solid grounds for legal action. Certainly much more so than the frivolous lawsuit they filed against our lawfully-operating firearms industry.
(And yes, the damages sought should reflect the costs of decades of negligent inaction, and be orders of magnitude more than what is sought in the actions against the gun industry. IMHO, $10 trillion, while crippling to the Mexican government, is in reality quite a low-ball amount.)