The Supreme Court just delivered a good old-fashioned reality check to the Mexican government—and a win for the Second Amendment and American sovereignty—by tossing out their absurd lawsuit against U.S. gun manufacturers. In a 2021 legal stunt, Mexico sued seven American gun companies, claiming they were somehow responsible for the country’s cartel violence. On Thursday, the Court ruled the obvious: no dice.
Writing for the Court, Justice Elena Kagan — not exactly a conservative firebrand—said the lawsuit doesn’t hold water under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). That 2005 law was passed to keep left-wing activists and foreign governments from suing gun makers just because someone misused a firearm. Which, by the way, is exactly what Mexico was trying to do.
Mexico argued the gun companies “knowingly” aided illegal trafficking into the hands of cartels. Kagan shut that down fast, writing that the complaint “does not plausibly allege” that the companies consciously and culpably participated in wrongdoing. Knowing that bad actors might misuse your product isn’t the same as aiding and abetting a crime. If that logic held up, car companies could be sued every time someone used a getaway car in a robbery.
And let’s talk about that car analogy for a second. Mexico has one legal gun store in the whole country. One. For 130 million people. That’s not gun control; that’s state-sanctioned disarmament. Meanwhile, cartels are armed to the teeth, not because of law-abiding American companies, but because of corrupt officials, black markets, and yes—lack of border enforcement.
CBS News ran a piece claiming up to half a million American-made guns end up in Mexico every year. You know what they didn’t mention? That many of those firearms were illegally smuggled, often by criminals taking advantage of a border that’s been a revolving door under Biden’s watch.
Mexico wants to blame American businesses for their own out-of-control crime problem. Maybe they should start by cleaning up their own house. The cartels are running entire regions of the country, the government can’t enforce its own gun laws, and now they want a courtroom in Washington to fix it?
The Supreme Court saw through it. The PLCAA protects gun manufacturers from being scapegoated for the criminal misuse of their legal products. Mexico tried to poke holes in it with legal gymnastics, but even a liberal-leaning Justice like Kagan wasn’t buying it.
Bottom line: you can’t sue your way out of failed policy. Mexico needs to face its cartel problem head-on, not blame Smith & Wesson.
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