Mexico sues U.S. gun manufacturers; SCOTUS likely to block it

[Rightguide]

Story.

resident Trump says that Mexicans are invading the United States, but at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, Mexico is arguing that American gun manufacturers are aiding and abetting an illegal invasion of guns from the United States into Mexico.

Mexico is suing Smith & Wesson and other gunmakers for damages, claiming that they are turning a blind eye to hundreds of thousands of high powered weapons made in the U.S that are illegally trafficked into in the hands of Mexican cartels.

Twenty five years ago, gun manufacturers found themselves facing lawsuits from cities, states, and counties over gun violence. The manufacturers raced to Congress for protection, and Congress obliged with a law giving them broad immunity from liability. But there were exceptions in the law. For instance, the parents of children killed in Newtown, Conn., won $73 million from the maker of the Bushmaster rifle used in the massacre. The families used a marketing exception in the law and argued that the company's marketing tactics targeted vulnerable young men an encouraged illegal behavior.

While 90% of gun dealers act legally in their gun sales, 5% do not, according to lawyer Jonathan Lowy, co-counsel for Mexico and president of Global Action on Gun Violence.

"Those bad actors sell to obvious cartel traffickers in bulk sales and repeated sales where the traffickers come into the store repeatedly over weeks and months, buying large amounts of AK-47s, AR-15s, sniper rifles that can shoot down helicopters, often paying in cash," he says. "Manufacturers know who those dealers are, how they're supplying the cartels, and yet they continue to choose to sell their guns through those dealers, and allowing those sales practices."

"That's a flawed argument," counters Lawrence Keane, counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearms industry.

"Every sale to a consumer by a licensed retailer is approved by the federal government. Every transactions requires a federally mandated background check," he says, adding that Mexico is arguing that a "lawful distribution system that's approved under federal law…is aiding and abetting cartels."

"If that was all that was required," he adds, "Budweiser would be responsible for drunk driving accidents all across the United States, and apparently including Mexico."

Mexico notes that it is a country where guns are supposed to be difficult to get. There is just one store in the whole country where guns can be bought legally, yet the nation is awash in illegal guns sold most often to the cartels. Mexico maintains that gushing pipeline of what it calls "crime guns" comes from the United States where manufacturers know which dealers are the bad actors.

"You can't hide behind the middleman and pretend like you don't know what's happening," says Lowy, Mexico's co-counsel .

Keane of the gun manufacturers trade association has a very different view.

"This case by Mexico is an attempt to have regulation through litigation and it's particularly offensive, candidly, when it is done by a foreign sovereign who comes into the U.S. court and then seeks not just $10 billion in damages" but also seeks to dictate how products can be sold and to whom. "That's invasion of U.S. sovereignty," he says.

A decision in the case is expected by summer.

Mexico will lose. Stupid suit.

 

[cowboyup6977]

No you are mistaken
We went through 4 loooong years with the dementia guy

 

[BabyBoomer50s]

You forgot the *sarcasm* .

I just think it’s wrong that a 10 year old can buy an M16 at Walmart with no questions asked.

 

[Rebel5soul]

I just think it’s wrong that a 10 year old can buy an M16 at Walmart with no questions asked.

When did that happen?

 

[UltraChad]

When did that happen?

Happens all day every day...Just ask CNN or one of the (D)umb fuck Harris voters around here.

Machine guns get sold like loaves of bread.

 

[Politruk]

Another moron runs their mouth. The manufacturer's have nothing to do with selling to the cartel's. The greater proportion of those firearms have been stolen

Lie.

and are used to trade for drugs. And here's where it gets interesting. In order for those transactions to take place it requires that the cartels engage in two-way smuggling. They have to smuggle the drugs into the US and then they have to smuggle the firearms back into Mexico. Currently the border is pretty well sealed up and that means that if the drugs are being smuggled in, the firearms aren't being smuggled out. See how that works shit for brains?

But the border isn't sealed.

 

[Politruk]

The illegal invasion of guns is the cartels smuggling them into Mexico so they can continue to control the country.

You really are an idiot.

But American companies make them.

 

[Politruk]

What right does a foreign country have to sue us

Any government, domestic or foreign, has the right to sue an American business.

 

[Politruk]

Happens all day every day...Just ask CNN or one of the (D)umb fuck Harris voters around here.

Machine guns get sold like loaves of bread.

Well, automatic rifles do.

And no private citizen has any legitimate use for an automatic rifle. It's much more firepower than you need for home defense, and it would be unsporting to use it to hunt. But it is the weapon of choice for drug cartels. And for crazy mass shooters.

 

[cowboyup6977]

Foreign government should have no rights

 

[cowboyup6977]

Well, automatic rifles do.

And no private citizen has any legitimate use for an automatic rifle. It's much more firepower than you need for home defense, and it would be unsporting to use it to hunt. But it is the weapon of choice for drug cartels. And for crazy mass shooters.

2nd amendment gives me the right to have any firearm that I choose
It should be none of the government’s fucking business

 

[Politruk]

Foreign government should have no rights

I think we should levy a tax on all foreigners living abroad.

 

[Politruk]

2nd amendment gives me the right to have any firearm that I choose
It should be none of the government’s fucking business

That won't fly in court if the ATF catches you stockpiling field artillery pieces, or even light machine guns.

 

[cowboyup6977]

AK and AR are just weapons in the right hands
A knife in the wrong hands is a very deadly weapon

 

[Politruk]

AK and AR are just weapons in the right hands

There are no right hands but a soldier's.

 

[UltraChad]

Any government, domestic or foreign, has the right to sue an American business.

Only because anti-American scum like you promote that kind of shit.

Well, automatic rifles do.

No, they don't.

And no private citizen has any legitimate use for an automatic rifle.

Self defense.

That won't fly in court if the ATF catches you stockpiling field artillery pieces, or even light machine guns.

ATF is being gutted as we speak bud.

There are no right hands but a soldier's.

The Constitution says otherwise.

 

[Politruk]

Only because anti-American scum like you promote that kind of shit.

American governments get to sue foreign corporations too. That's just civilized behavior.

 

[UltraChad]

That's just civilized behavior.

That's asshole behavior.

 

[Rebel5soul]

Polyturdbrain and his fellow travelers are just going to get more frenetic as the days pass. Just sit back and enjoy watching their mental disintegration.

 

[Politruk]

That's asshole behavior.

You are an idiot.