Gun makers urge US Supreme Court to hear appeal in Mexico’s lawsuit

U.S. gun manufacturers on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court hear their challenge to Mexico’s $10 billion lawsuit seeking to hold them responsible for facilitating the trafficking of firearms to violent drug cartels across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Eight companies including Smith & Wesson Brands and Sturm, Ruger & Co in a petition argued that a lower court wrongly concluded the case qualified for an exception to a U.S. law that grants the firearms industry broad protection from lawsuits over the misuse of their products.
A trial court judge had dismissed the case citing that law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. But Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in January concluded Mexico’s claims fit within the narrow exception to the liability shield.
The 1st Circuit did so after finding that Mexico had plausibly alleged the business practices of the seven gun makers and one distributor it had sued aided and abetted the illegal trafficking of guns to Mexico.