Keep Your Damn Guns

Mexico will see you in court

Firearm manufacturers in the United States are protected from lawsuits related to the use of their products by a federal law called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). The PLCAA was passed in 2005 due to heavy lobbying by gun manufacturers who were increasingly finding themselves the target of lawsuits related to crimes committed using their products. Then U.S. president George W. Bush and a majority of congress were all too happy to supplicate themselves to the wishes of the gun industry and the reckless loss of life that industry enables.

The United States manufactures the vast majority of rifles and handguns intended for civilian use. Other countries also manufacture these types of weapons, but they primarily export them to the U.S., since the U.S. is the only meaningful legal market for such weapons. We all know the upshot to all this - we see it in the U.S. news almost daily. But what we don't see in the U.S. news so much is the gun violence toll on countries other than the U.S. - a toll that is enabled because of the U.S.

While the U.S. is in second place for total number of gun deaths per year (Brazil is first), it is merely in fourth place for the number of gun deaths per capita (behind Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico, in that order). But pretty much all of those gun deaths are committed by firearms that have been purchased in the U.S. from U.S. manufacturers and retailers. The U.S. is, unquestionably and by a ridiculous margin, the number one enabler of gun violence the world over.

And so yes, of course we need laws like the PLCAA in order to protect this grotesque status quo.

Mexico says "enough with your status quo"

In August of 2021, the government of Mexico filed a 10 billion USD lawsuit in the District Court of Boston, Massachusetts against several U.S. gun manufacturers, accusing them of "carelessness and negligence that actively facilitates their weapons being trafficked into Mexican territory." Recently, the Boston District Court dismissed the lawsuit, asserting that the PLCAA barred Mexico from suing U.S. gun manufacturers.

But Mexico is appealing that decision to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the PLCAA applies only to lawsuits related to criminal use of guns within the United State's borders, and not to criminal use and damage caused in the territory of foreign nations.

For now, Mexico's appeal is still pending. Meanwhile, Mexico has filed a similar lawsuit in the Federal District Court of Tucson against five Arizona gun retailers. Mexico has also made a request for an opinion from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the U.S. arms trade and its impact on human rights.

From Mexico's Federal Government website (www.gob.mx):

With all these actions the Mexican Government is seeking to involve the actors that until now have not been involved in the fight against arms trafficking: the gun companies. There is a correlation between the negligent practices of companies and the arms trafficking that leads to violence in Mexico, as well as other crimes such as human trafficking and drug trafficking, particularly of fentanyl.

The plot thickens

The three judges on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court at least appear that they might entertain Mexico's appeal, having openly questioned whether the lower court's conclusion regarding the broad interpretation of the PLCAA was justified.

Meanwhile, the attorneys general of the states of Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai'i, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia have together filed an amicus brief supporting the Mexican government's lawsuit against the gun manufacturers.

Having watched the United States' position on guns steadily devolve into the macabre circus we see today, I don't hold out a lot of hope that Mexico will prevail in these lawsuits. But, I do suppose I hold a sliver of hope. And knowing that the U.S. has zero appetite for putting an end to gun violence, it is somewhat comforting to know that governments elsewhere do, in fact, have such an appetite.