The case is Smith & Wesson Brand, Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos.
Mexico claims U.S. gun makers should be held responsible for cartel violence committed with firearms made in the United States. The lawsuit is seeking billions of dollars from seven major manufacturers and one gun wholesaler.
Mark Oliva, of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, says the manufacturers are protected from liability for crimes thanks to a federal law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. The 2005 bill was signed into law by President George W. Bush.
"There was never intent to actually prove their cases,” Olivia says of the Mexican government. “They figured they could tie up the industry so much in court that they would no longer be able to afford the legal costs and go into bankruptcy, and this is exactly what Mexico is trying to do."
The very same attorney who sued and tried to bankrupt the gun manufacturers decades ago is involved in this lawsuit, too, Olivia adds.
For that reason, Oliva stresses that "every manufacturing industry” should be paying close attention to this case because the same legal argument for liability could be applied to them.
When the lawsuit was filed in 2021, a Massachusetts federal court cited the Arms Act and dismissed it but an appeals court reversed that decision, according to the Scotusblog website. The gun manufacturers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court last April, asking the justices to weigh in.
NSSF has filed an amicus brief on behalf of the gun manufacturers.
