Mexico’s Hypocritical Lawsuit Against Gun Manufacturers, By Charles Taylor (Florida)
Talk about hypocrisy. Mexico wants the US Supreme Court to allow its $ 10 billion lawsuit against US gun manufacturers to proceed. Yes, this is the Mexico which has produced the murderous drug cartels, who allows the immigration invasion, and mass numbers of criminals, rapists, and murderers to enter the country. While having on the books, strict gun control laws, Mexico is flooded with guns, mainly as illegal imports from countries other than the US. After all. if millions of illegals can freely pass through the country, how can they stop the flow of guns? Best to blame the US.
Of course, lawsuits like this are most likely set up by support of the US anti-gun lobby as a backdoor way of crippling US gun manufacturers. I advise everyone here to get your guns now before the liberal banning poison progresses any further. As for Australia, I am not sure what you can do, because from this distance it looks like the Feds will be pushing for Western Australian style restrictions in all states. Then that is tightened some more, with impossible security arrangements to eliminate firearms from the general population.
"Mexico urged the U.S. Supreme Court this week to let its $10 billion lawsuit against U.S. gun manufacturers for allegedly flooding that country with firearms proceed in the lower courts.
Although some gun control activists welcome Mexico's lawsuit, gun rights advocates say the legal action by a foreign government is exploiting U.S. laws in an effort to cripple the U.S. firearms industry and weaken the Second Amendment protections Americans enjoy.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit allowed the case to move forward after it was dismissed by a federal district court.
The new filing by Mexico on July 3 comes after lead petitioner Smith and Wesson filed a petition with the Supreme Court on April 18 seeking to overturn the First Circuit ruling. Among the co-petitioners are Beretta U.S.A. Corp., Glock Inc., and Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc.
In its brief, Mexico argues the First Circuit ruled correctly and that it should be allowed to move forward with its claim that the petitioners "deliberately chose to engage in unlawful … conduct to profit off the criminal market for their products."
The circuit court held that Mexico's complaint made a plausible claim that the petitioners "deliberately aided and abetted the unlawful sale of firearms to purchasers supplying brutal cartels in Mexico" and that that country suffered harm as a result, the brief stated.
The gun makers are wrong to argue that the prospect of them being held "liable for negligence and public nuisance" presents "an existential threat to the gun industry."
The First Circuit's decision came after a federal district court threw out the lawsuit on Sept. 30, 2022.
U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV in Massachusetts dismissed the lawsuit that claimed U.S. companies were intentionally undermining Mexico's tough gun laws by making "military-style assault weapons" that find their way to drug cartels and criminals.
Judge Saylor found that the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) of 2005 "unequivocally bars lawsuits seeking to hold gun manufacturers responsible for the acts of individuals using guns for their intended purpose." The PLCAA was enacted to protect the industry from frivolous lawsuits.
But in January 2024, a three-judge panel of the First Circuit reversed, returning the case to the district court and allowing the lawsuit to proceed.
Circuit Judge William Kayatta wrote that the PLCAA places limits on the kinds of lawsuits that foreign governments may bring in U.S. courts for harm experienced outside the United States, but held that Mexico made a plausible argument that qualifies for an exception under the statute. The exception pertains to "knowing violations of statutes regulating the sale or marketing of firearms," which is what Mexico accuses the firearms companies of doing."
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