(The Center Square) – A coalition of 28 attorneys general has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a case in which Mexico is blaming U.S. gun manufacturers for Mexican cartel gun violence.
At issue is a 2022 lawsuit brought by the Mexican government against U.S. gun manufacturers arguing they are responsible for Mexican cartel crime in Mexico. A federal judge in Massachusetts dismissed the lawsuit. Mexico appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that Mexico’s claims fall within an exception to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005.
In June, a coalition of 27 AGs, led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, appealed to the Supreme Court to throw out the case.
In a petition filed on Tuesday, the coalition, which now totals 28 AGs, asked the Supreme Court to reverse the First Circuit’s ruling noting that it has already rejected the expansive view of “proximate causation” that the First Circuit used to allow the case to go forward.
Mexico’s lawsuit contradicts claims made by its former president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, that crime went down under his leadership and crime in Mexico wasn’t a problem. From 2018 through the end of his term this year, violence increased exponentially, according to multiple reports, The Center Square reported.
Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” policy with the cartels led to one of the bloodiest elections in Mexican history this past election cycle. Obrador then blamed Americans for the violence, as dozens of candidates were murdered in Mexico allegedly by the cartels, The Center Square reported.
While claiming that America’s “drug problem” is not Mexico’s problem, Obrador blamed U.S. gun manufacturers for cartel gun violence and cartel weapons trafficking and smuggling. Weapons trafficking and smuggling are felonies in the U.S. for which cartel operatives are prosecuted by U.S. authorities. American gun manufacturers do not sell their products to transnational criminal organizations, and no data supports Mexico’s claims, the AGs argue.
Congress passed the PLCAA to create protections for firearm companies from being held liable for the criminal misuse of their products, including protecting them from lawsuits like the one Mexico filed, they argue.
Mexico argues an exception in the PLCAA narrowly authorizes its lawsuit. The First Circuit agreed based on an expansive view of “proximate causation,” which the Supreme Court has already rejected, the AGs note. The proximity cause fails, they argue, because cartel violence is associated with Mexican government policy, cartels rarely use American retail guns, and eliminating the U.S. retail gun industry wouldn’t affect the cartels’ access to weapons.
“If Mexico wants to end its domestic gun problem, it may do so. It could name and report the gun dealers who allegedly sell guns to drug cartels. It could attempt to negotiate with the United States to extradite individuals who trafficked guns to Mexico. It could finish its war with the cartels. It could even close its border with the United States. But it cannot end the domestic manufacturing of American firearms,” they argue in the brief.
“That Mexico disagrees with our Nation’s history and tradition of firearm ownership is no consequence to its ability to impose its preferences on the American people via judicial fiat. This lawsuit against American gun manufacturers recycles the failed, anti-gun lawfare tactics already rejected by Congress. Mexico’s legal theories have no basis in law or fact. This Court should reverse,” they said.
Joining Knudsen are the AGs from Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, and the Arizona Legislature joined the brief.
Among them, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody first called on President Joe Biden to designate Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. She also led a coalition of 17 AGs calling on the president to designate fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
Several Republican congressional reports have identified Mexican cartels as facilitating the U.S. illicit fentanyl crisis by working with the Chinese Communist Party to wage nonconventional warfare against the U.S., The Center Square reported.
President-elect Donald Trump has warned he will impose sanctions on Mexico, shut down the border, and target the cartels once in office.
