The Mexican government is seeking billions of dollars in damages for arms suppliers’ role in cross-border gun trafficking.


The government of Mexico is suing U.S. gun-makers for their role in facilitating cross-border gun trafficking that has supercharged violent crime in Mexico.

The lawsuit seeks US$10 billion in damages and a court order to force the companies named in the lawsuit – including Smith & Wesson, Colt, Glock, Beretta and Ruger – to change the way they do business. In January, a federal appeals court in Boston decided that the industry’s immunity shield, which so far has protected gun-makers from civil liability, does not apply to Mexico’s lawsuit.

As a legal scholar who has analyzed lawsuits against the gun industry for more than 25 years, I believe this decision to allow Mexico’s lawsuit to proceed could be a game changer. To understand why, let’s begin with some background about the federal law that protects the gun industry from civil lawsuits.

read more: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/mexico-is-suing-us-gun-makers-for-arming-its-gangs-and-fueling-extreme-violence/

  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    Exactly. Most people seem to be worried about things that are non-issues, and completely ignore things that are.

    For example, private sales are legal in many parts of the country, and those often don’t require any paperwork to be submitted (though I think records of sale need to be kept). If you work selling guns, you’re not allowed to do private sales whatsoever, so that’s a non-issue as well. But if you just own guns, you may sell them person to person legally in enough states to matter.

    And that’s where I think we need reform. All gun sales should go through either a firearm dealer or the local police, since those are the groups capable of doing the necessary checks. Those should have a nominal fee attached, but nothing so high as to encourage black market sales. I also think all gun buyers should be required to prove that they’ve done a gun safety course somewhat recently.

    But gun reform advocates blame manufacturers and retailers, yet they’re not the causes of the problems we’re seeing.