The Supreme Court may reduce the trial by $ 10 billion in Mexico against manufacturers of American firearms
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court seemed likely to block a historic legal action of $ 10 billion against the manufacturers of American firearms, because the conservative and liberal judges raised concerns concerning the authorization of the government of Mexico to hold the manufacturers of firearms responsible for the violence of the cartel in the south of the border.
Federal law grants broad immunity to the firearms industry, in part to protect companies from expensive disputes that could keep them away. Mexico alleges that the law creates an exception to “help and encourage” the sale and illicit traffic of firearms, which companies deny.
Mexico has only one shot of firearms but is flooded in millions of American manufacturing weapons, the most channeled in the country by straw buyers in the United States. The country claims businesses, including Smith & Wesson, Glock, Beretta and Colt, distribute and knowingly market their weapons in trafficking.
By an estimateAt least 200,000 cannons run south of the border each year. The country requests $ 10 billion in damage and security requirements compatible with the court around the marketing and distribution of firearms.
“The laws buried here are designed to keep the firearms of the criminals. These violations have put firearms in the hands of the criminals and these criminals hurt Mexico,” Cate Stetson, the lawyer for Mexico, told the Supreme Court.
“These acts were predictable,” she added. “This court does not need to guarantee the allegations of Mexico, but it must assume that they are true. … Mexico should have the possibility of proving its case.”
The weapons seized by American customs and the protection of borders during the southern inspections are displayed at the port of Nogales, in Ariz. Un dated file photo.
CPB / DVIDS
Many judges did not seem convinced by the case of Mexico should be allowed to move forward.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor suggested that the alleged damage to the violence of the root cartel are too far from the decisions of manufacturers to distribute their products.
“We have said on several occasions that simple knowledge is not enough [for liability]”Said Sotomayor.” You have to help yourself and yourself. You must have the intention and take on affirmative to … participate in what they are doing. “
J. Elena Kagan questioned what she perceived as a lack of specificity in the allegations of Mexico.
“There are a lot of [gun] dealerships. And you just say [the gunmakers] know that some of them [engage in trafficking]. But what are some of them? I mean, who do they help and encourage in this complaint? “Said Kagan.
After Stetson allegedly allegedly marketed a deliberate firearm in the Cartels, chief judge John Roberts expressed the skepticism of the complaint.
“I mean, there are people who want to experience a particular type of weapon because they find it more pleasant than using a BB pistol,” he said. “And I wonder exactly what the accused, the manufacturer, is supposed to do in this situation. You say no, he should not market a particular legal firearm because they will go to Mexico to a higher percentage than the others?”
The Supreme Washington Court, June 30, 2024.
Susan Walsh / AP, file
Judge Brett Kavanaugh expressed his concerns about the broader implications of a decision allowing Mexico’s pursuit to move forward.
“What do you do with the suggestion on the other side … that your theory of helping and encouraging the responsibility of destructive effects on the American economy in the sense that … Many of ordinary sellers and manufacturers know that they will be used by some subsets of people?” He asked. “They know that for a certainty, it will be pharmaceutical products, cars, what – you can name a lot of products. So it’s a real concern, I think.”
Stetson replied: “If you have a manufacturer of products from a dangerous product that would have done all the things knowing who they sell and what is done with this product, then and only, I think, this manufacturer of products … has a problem.”
More than 160,000 people in Mexico were killed by firearms between 2015 and 2022, according to an analysis by EveryTown for the safety of firearms.
A large majority of firearms involved in the shots came from American border states. According to a report by the US Government Accountability Report, more than 40% of illegal firearms entered in Mexico over a period of five years came from Texas.
In 2023 alone, more than 2,600 firearms were seized by going south to Mexico, up 65% compared to the previous year, according to the Ministry of Internal Security, and 115,000 ammunition cartridges were captured in the same direction, up 19% compared to 2022.
A federal district court rejected the case of Mexico in 2022, citing immunity under federal law. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals denied this decision at the beginning of 2024, claiming that Mexico had pleaded by virtue of responsibility under the exception of the law.
The Supreme Court should decide by the end of June if a case of responsibility may or may not go ahead.
