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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   1364 thread views

Transnational Thursday for January 25, 2024

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Mexico

Mexico has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against gun manufacturers in the United States for aiding and abetting the cartels. Noa a circuit court has actually upheld their suit.

Mexico, in an attempt to challenge the reach of that law, sued six manufacturers in 2021, including Smith & Wesson, Glock and Ruger. It contended that the companies should be held liable for the trafficking of a half-million guns across the border a year, some of which were used in murders.

In September 2022, a Federal District Court judge threw out the suit, ruling that the law prohibits legal action brought by foreign governments.

But Judge William J. Kayatta Jr., an Obama appointee who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, writing for a unanimous majority, revived the lawsuit. The ruling said that plaintiffs had made a “plausible” argument that their case was “statutorily exempt” from the immunity shield…

About 70 to 90 percent of guns trafficked in Mexico originated in the United States, according to Everytown Law, the legal arm of the gun control group founded by the former mayor of New York Michael R. Bloomberg.

Previous suits to hold manufacturers responsible for gun violence have all fallen flat, so it’s a pretty major milestone that this is being heard at all, though it does seem unfair to Mexico if their own laws are being completely circumvented. The ruling will certainly be appealed now.

What have gun manufacturers have to do with illegal traffic of guns. Are they engaged in shipping the products over border.

Mexico is very much on the side of the USA blue tribe as far as gun control issues go because the Mexican government blames the purchase of civilian legal semi-automatic rifles as the key source of arms for the cartels, and ignores the cartels having access to massive amounts of weapons that aren't civilian legal in the US to avoid confronting its own corruption issues. We can expect them to periodically engage in normal American gun-control side antics like suing gun makers.

Now if weapons in Mexican military armories didn't tend to go missing and turn up in cartel hands, they might have a point. Banning AR-15s would have no effect on American gun deaths but if the Mexican army didn't sell weapons to its own primary opponents would probably meaningfully reduce cartel firepower.

I can see a case in Mexico suing United States. But not manufacturers.

I imagine nothing beyond making the weapons at all, as your comment implies.

Previous suits to hold manufacturers responsible for gun violence have all fallen flat, so it’s a pretty major milestone that this is being heard at all

It looks like they did some pretty blatant forum shopping. The first circuit has 11 judges and only 3 republican appointees, with the most recent being by George HW Bush.

The gun manufactures should be protected by both the foreign government issue, as well as a federal law immunizing gun manufacturers. The tactic lefty judges have been using lately is to just ignore those issues and let the lawsuit proceed. The SCOTUS doesn't take many cases and they get a bit lazy and think they can just review the whole case in the end.

The manufacturers will see a doomed trial with biased judges and settle. So the SCOTUS will never have a case to review.

That's what happened in the Remington lawsuit, Mexico is seeking to repeat.

though it does seem unfair to Mexico if their own laws are being completely circumvented

Perhaps they should invest in some sort of wall to reduce smuggling.

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