The nation is claiming the companies are running arms for the Mexican cartels.
QUICK FACTS:
- The government of Mexico is suing five United States gun manufacturers in United States federal court.
- America’s neighbor to the south is claiming that the businesses are illegally trafficking arms to cartels in their nation.
- The legal action, Estados Unidos Mexicanos v. Diamondback Shooting Sports Inc. was filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson, Arizona.
- Mexico included in the suit a statement claiming the Arizona-based gun dealers “systematically participate in arms trafficking, including of military-style weapons, for criminal organizations in Mexico” by engaging in “sales to straw purchasers and sales meant for arms smugglers.”
- The lawsuit claims to be is a part of a comprehensive plan to stem the flow of firearms into Mexico, especially assault rifles, which arm criminal organizations and cause slaughter there, according to the statement.
FROM MEXICO’S SUIT:
- The lawsuit “is part of a multifaceted strategy to stop the avalanche of guns into Mexico, particularly assault weapons, which equip criminal groups and lead to bloodshed in the country,” according to the statement.
- The five stores targeted in the suit are “among the Arizona dealers whose guns are most frequently recovered in Mexico,” according to the plaintiff.
- “Defendants choose to sell guns using reckless and unlawful practices, despite the foreseeability—indeed, virtual certainty—that they are thereby helping cause deadly cartel violence across the border,” the suit states. “Defendants engage in these reckless and unlawful actions because it makes them money. This lawsuit intends to hold them accountable, and make them stop.”
BACKGROUND:
- The new lawsuit comes after a federal judge in Massachusetts dismissed a $10 billion claim made by Mexico against arms manufacturers, including Smith & Wesson, on September 30.
- Mexico claimed that U.S. businesses knowingly undermined that country’s strict gun laws by producing “military-style assault weapons” that were obtained by drug cartels and criminals.
- In the previous case the judge found that the 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.”
