In a major legal victory for the American firearms industry, the United States Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Mexican government that sought to hold U.S. gun manufacturers financially liable for weapons used by Mexican drug cartels.
The lawsuit was filed by the Mexican government in 2021.
It alleges that leading U.S. gun companies — including Smith & Wesson, Colt, Glock, and others — turned a blind eye as their products were trafficked across the southern border and used in Mexico’s spiraling cartel violence.
Mexico had demanded $10 billion in damages.
The lawsuit claims that U.S. companies were complicit in the bloodshed by failing to prevent their weapons from being illegally smuggled into the country.
However, the Supreme Court was unconvinced by the argument.
Writing the opinion for the Court, Justice Elena Kagan said that the justices did not doubt that some firearms from the U.S. end up in the hands of traffickers.
Nevertheless, Mexico had failed to demonstrate that the manufacturers had intentionally or directly facilitated those illegal sales.
“Mexico’s complaint does not plausibly allege that the defendant manufacturers aided and abetted gun dealers’ unlawful sales of firearms to Mexican traffickers,” Kagan wrote.
“We have little doubt that, as the complaint asserts, some such sales take place — and that the manufacturers know they do.
“But still, Mexico has not adequately pleaded what it needs to.”
Gun rights advocates and industry representatives immediately applauded the decision.
Lawrence Keane, an attorney with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, mocked Mexico’s claim.
Keane compared the claims from Mexico to blaming alcohol manufacturers for drunk driving accidents.
“If that was all that was required, Budweiser would be responsible for drunk driving accidents all across the United States — and apparently including Mexico,” Keane quipped.
Supporters of Mexico’s legal strategy, like Jonathan Lowy of Global Action on Gun Violence, accused U.S. manufacturers of trying to avoid accountability.
“You can’t hide behind the middleman and pretend like you don’t know what’s happening,” Lowy argued, insisting that the companies had an ethical responsibility to prevent illegal trafficking.
But the Court’s unanimous decision made clear that U.S. companies cannot be held liable for criminal actions committed by third parties in foreign countries.
The justices noted that those companies are operating within U.S. law.
The ruling underscores a broad judicial consensus that foreign governments cannot dictate domestic liability standards for lawful American businesses.
Mexico’s lawsuit had raised concerns among U.S. gun owners and conservative legal scholars who viewed the case as a backdoor attempt to erode Second Amendment protections and punish law-abiding manufacturers for the failure of foreign governments to control their own borders and criminal activity.
The ruling represents a significant setback for international gun control advocates, meanwhile.
The case reaffirms that American companies are not responsible for the misuse of their products by foreign criminals, particularly when those products were sold legally through federally regulated channels.
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