Mexico isn't a pleasant place to visit. Once, it was. It was a vacation destination. Sure, there was a little corruption here and there, but you weren't likely to be shot in the streets just for existing.
The last few years have marked a serious change, and Mexico would rather blame American gun makers than the drug cartels.
I mean, what else can I take from the fact that the cartels control massive swaths of territory, have the resources to get guns from all kinds of illicit dealers, and yet the government still wants to sue American gun manufacturers despite zero evidence they have any role in arming criminals south of the border.
Now, a group of 28 attorneys general are asking the Supreme Court to put an end to this foolishness.
A coalition of 28 attorneys general has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a case in which Mexico is blaming U.S. gun manufacturers for Mexican cartel gun violence.
At issue is a 2022 lawsuit brought by the Mexican government against U.S. gun manufacturers arguing they are responsible for Mexican cartel crime in Mexico. A federal judge in Massachusetts dismissed the lawsuit. Mexico appealed to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that Mexico’s claims fall within an exception to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005.
In June, a coalition of 27 AGs, led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, appealed to the Supreme Court to throw out the case.
In a petition filed on Tuesday, the coalition, which now totals 28 AGs, asked the Supreme Court to reverse the 1st Circuit’s ruling, noting that it has already rejected the expansive view of “proximate causation” that the 1st Circuit used to allow the case to go forward.
Mexico’s lawsuit contradicts claims made by its former president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, that crime went down under his leadership and crime in Mexico wasn’t a problem. From 2018 through the end of his term this year, violence increased exponentially, according to multiple reports, The Center Square reported.
Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” policy with the cartels led to one of the bloodiest elections in Mexican history this past election cycle. Obrador then blamed Americans for the violence, as dozens of candidates were murdered in Mexico allegedly by the cartels, The Center Square reported.
While claiming that America’s “drug problem” is not Mexico’s problem, Obrador blamed U.S. gun manufacturers for cartel gun violence and cartel weapons trafficking and smuggling. Weapons trafficking and smuggling are felonies in the U.S. for which cartel operatives are prosecuted by U.S. authorities. American gun manufacturers do not sell their products to transnational criminal organizations, and no data supports Mexico’s claims, the AGs argue.
The truth of the matter is that American law prohibits the export of guns without the State Department's approval and American law enforcement generally look for any evidence people are taking guns across the border, though Operation Fast and Furious might suggest otherwise.
Still, we've taken steps to try and reduce illegal guns flowing south. Mexico has done nothing to stop drugs coming north, and as noted above, pretends they have no role in the issue. Well, if we were to accept that, then why is it our problem if they can't keep violent crime in check? We have so many more guns here and don't have anything close to the same number of homicides per capita. If guns were the problem, why aren't we so much more violent?
I sincerely hope that AGs get through to the Supreme Court and that the Court tosses the case out with extreme prejudice.
This is nothing more than Mexican officials trying to place the blame for their own failures on the United States so they don't have to answer for it to their voters.