The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked two American arms companies from being sued by the Mexican government, which accused them of aiding drug cartels in illegal firearms trafficking and fueling violence in the country.
In a 9-0 ruling, the justices overturned a lower court ruling that had allowed the lawsuit against gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson and distributor Interstate Arms to proceed.
The lower court had found Mexico’s argument that the companies aided and abetted illegal arms sales, harming its government, plausible.
The companies had sought dismissal of Mexico’s lawsuit, filed in Boston in 2021, under a 2005 U.S. law called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which exempts arms companies from liability for crimes committed with their products.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston had ruled in 2024 that the companies’ alleged conduct fell outside these protections.
Mexico’s lawsuit accused the two companies of violating several U.S. and Mexican laws. Mexico alleges that the companies deliberately maintained a distribution system that included firearms dealers who knowingly sold weapons to third parties, or “straw buyers,” who then trafficked them to cartels in Mexico.
The lawsuit also accused the companies of illegally designing and marketing their weapons as military-grade to increase demand among cartels, even associating their products with the U.S. military and law enforcement. The gun companies said they manufacture and sell legal products.
Mexico, a country with strict firearms laws, has stated that most of its homicides are committed with weapons trafficked from the United States and valued at more than $250 million annually.
Source: eleconomista
