Twenty-seven top Republican prosecutors have filed a court brief asking the Supreme Court to take up a Mexican government lawsuit that seeks to hold U.S. gun manufacturers responsible for cartel gun violence.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen on Tuesday joined his Republican colleagues in asking the court to hear a lawsuit aimed at preventing a “foreign sovereign from using our courts to effectively restrict the rights of American citizens.”
The case stems from a lawsuit filed by the Mexican government in 2021, in which U.S. firearms manufacturers such as Smith & Wesson and Ruger were aware that their firearms were being trafficked and were forced to cross the border. They say they should be held responsible for gun violence committed by cartels in the South. enter the country.
Mexico’s lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge in Massachusetts last year, but Mexico successfully appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, with support from California and other Democratic-led states.
Mexican cartels use US border to arm with ‘military-grade’ weapons: document
Handguns will be on display at the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Rocker/File)
In his petition to the high court, Knudsen said “anti-gun activists” were behind the lawsuit.
“Congress has long taken a measured and carefully calibrated approach to firearms regulation. Congress seeks to balance people’s Second Amendment rights with the need to keep guns away from criminals. “Anti-gun activists wanted more action,” the petition reads.
“So they turned to the judiciary. Their acknowledged goal was to bypass the political branch by turning courts into regulators through creative legal theory and tenuous causal relationships. Even better. , they knew they didn’t have to win. It was just a threat.” A bankruptcy judgment was enough, and even if it wasn’t, a good enough roll of the dice was finally the anomaly they were looking for. It will bring us victory.”
The petition said Congress recognized that the people’s right to keep and bear arms “means little if gun manufacturers are forced out of business,” and also recognized the importance of the firearms industry to the military and law enforcement. Explaining. Accordingly, the AGs argue that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) was enacted in 2005.
The bipartisan PLCAA provides “a civil liability action against a manufacturer, distributor, seller, or importer of a firearm or ammunition for damages, injunctive, or other relief resulting from the misuse of the product by another.” It is prohibited to raise or continue “.
‘The most ruthless’ Mexican cartel operates in 50 states, leading to turf wars: DEA
Firearms are on display at a gun store in Oregon. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky/File)
“You might think that would be the end of it,” the AGs wrote. “But activists are at it again, trying to cram the same creative legal theory with even more tenuous causation into the PLCAA’s narrow exceptions, and clearly accomplishing through litigation what Congress rejected.” Here, activists even forced Mexico to sue American gun manufacturers for criminal problems stemming from Mexico’s policy choices. ”
The Mexican government said the companies “were fully aware that their firearms were being smuggled into the country and that these companies, and not third parties, knowingly violated the laws governing the sale and marketing of firearms.”
Mexico also notes that more than 500,000 guns are smuggled into Mexico annually from the United States, more than 68% of which are manufactured by the eight companies Mexico sued, and that smuggling is linked to increased gun-related mortality, investment and They argue that this is contributing to a decline in economic activity and the need for Mexico to spend more money on law enforcement and public safety.
However, the AGs said Mexico’s own policies such as “hugs, not bullets” and failures to crack down on cartels, as well as cartels’ infiltration of the country’s government, contributed to the high crime rate.
California, blue state sides with Mexico in lawsuit accusing gun manufacturers of violence
United States Supreme Court (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin/File)
“Mexico’s theory of direct causation is clearly flawed. Mexico is a sovereign nation and controls its own borders. Mexico could easily close its border with the United States if it wanted to — and it did. , could be militarized — no doubt the closure would be painful.”Indeed, Mexico is trying to extort billions of dollars from the United States to open its borders and clean up the resulting chaos.” AG et al.
“Mexico should not be allowed to effectively control the rights of American citizens in order to mitigate the consequences of its own policy choices,” they concluded.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Montana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota The court brief was filed by the states of Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Arizona.
If the Supreme Court decides to hear the case, oral arguments could be scheduled for this fall.
Reuters contributed to this report.
