Washington /
About to enter the final stretch of the November 5 elections, the Supreme Court of USA accepted for analysis the request of a handful of firearms manufacturers to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the government of Mexico to make them co-responsible for the violence carried out by the cartels.
The counterclaim before the highest court was filed on behalf of Smith & Wesson Brands, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Beretta USA Corp, Colt’s Manufacturing Company, LLC, Glock Inc. and Witmer Public Safety Groupwho declared themselves “intimidated” by Mexico’s actions.
The legal representatives of the firms warned that “the multimillion-dollar demand for Mexico will hang over the American arms industry for years, leading to costly and intrusive discoveries at the hands of a foreign sovereign who is trying to intimidate the industry into a series of security measures. gun control that has been repeatedly rejected by voters.”
The shares of some accused gun shops listed on the New York Stock Exchangewere benefited by their motion before the highest court of USAfor example those of Smith & Wesson Brands They rose 0.86 percent at the close of the session.
The counterattack of the manufacturers of arms It comes after a lower court cleared the way for Mexico’s lawsuit to continue in US courts.
With his original lawsuit filed in 2021 in a federal court of Bostonthe Mexican government seeks to hold these firms responsible for facilitating illicit arms trafficking to criminal gangs and demands compensation of 10 billion dollars for damages, as well as precautionary measures.
The judge F. Dennis Saylorof the Federal Court of the District Court in Boston, threw out the complaint against the majority of the defendants on the grounds that they were shielded by the Firearms Trade Protection Law of 2005, which offers a degree of immunity to manufacturers for actions committed by buyers of their products.
However, three magistrates of the Court of Appeals of the First Circuit of the United Statesalso in Boston, resurrected the lawsuit based on the interpretation of one of the exceptions to the legislation. Faced with this situation, the plaintiffs decided to resort to the Supreme Court of that country.
The manufacturers argue in their motion that Mexico’s demand would amount to an intrusion into the sovereignty of USA to the extent that the judicial outcome can reshape the landscape of US regulation on the matter, from a ban on “assault weapons” to a universal background check system imposed by the courts.
In its formal response, Mexico defended its case. “The avalanche of firearms by the petitioners from sources in USA Even cartels in Mexico is not an accident. It is the result of a conscious and deliberate choice to supply their products to bad actors, enable reckless and illegal practices, and design and market them in a way that drives demand among criminals.”
According to the original complaint, the Mexican government wants to end the “massive damage” that have caused the gun manufacturers Americans by “actively facilitating their illegal trafficking to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico.”
The mexican chancellery estimates that seven out of every 10 weapons that are trafficked into Mexican territory come of American manufacturers.
The magistrates They accepted the callwrit of certiorai” of the complainants and will begin the process during the next period of sessions of the highest court in the country, which begins next Monday in Washington.
