Gun makers to ask US Supreme Court to bar Mexico’s lawsuit

U.S. gun manufacturers plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their bid to escape Mexico’s $10 billion lawsuit seeking to hold them responsible for facilitating the trafficking of weapons to drug cartels across the U.S.-Mexico border.
The planned appeal was disclosed during a virtual court hearing on Friday by a lawyer for Smith & Wesson Brands after the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month overturned a judge’s decision dismissing the case.
Mexico alleges in the lawsuit, filed in 2021, that the companies undermined its strict gun laws by designing, marketing and distributing military-style assault weapons in ways they knew would arm drug cartels, fueling murders, extortions and kidnappings in the country.
Mexico says over 500,000 guns are trafficked annually from the U.S. into Mexico, of which more than 68% are made by the eight companies it sued, which also include Sturm, Ruger & Co, Beretta USA, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Colt’s Manufacturing Co and Glock Inc.