The Myth of Mexico’s ‘American Gun Problem’
7th June 2025
This week, the Supreme Court tossed out the Mexican government’s lawsuit against seven major U.S. gun manufacturers, holding that a federal statute called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act barred Mexico from filing the lawsuit in the first place.
In the suit in question, Mexico alleged the gun companies were civilly liable for billions of dollars in damages for violence committed in Mexico by Mexican drug cartels, on the theory that the companies aided and abetted unlawful sales of firearms to Mexican traffickers.
The Court’s unanimous opinion in the case, Smith & Wesson v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos, is a resounding victory for America’s lawful gun industry. Among other things, it ensures that foreign governments can’t use abusive litigation to dictate America’s national gun policy or compel American gun companies to undermine the constitutional rights of American citizens.
The ruling also underscores some inconvenient truths for the Mexican government about the reality of gun violence in that nation. Try as it might to cast one of America’s most regulated industries as the villain orchestrating with drug cartels to keep Mexico awash in violence, the Mexican government’s claims have always been little more than disingenuous attempts to blame anyone but itself for the nation’s cartel-driven and corruption-fueled violence woes.