President Donald Trump has long accused Mexico of sending migrants and drugs to the United States.
But in an unusual case heard before the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, Mexico is arguing that the underlying cause of its crime and migration problems is actually American gun manufacturers.
The Mexican government alleges that U.S. firearms manufacturers know their products are trafficked to Mexico and that they deliberately design and market weapons to appeal to this illegal – and profitable – market. An estimated 70% of weapons used in crimes in Mexico can be traced to the United States, where they’re often purchased legally and smuggled south across the border.
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If Mexico is responsible, as the White House argues, for drugs and migrants crossing the border into the United States, do U.S. arms manufacturers bear responsibility for the guns going the other way? Mexico is telling the Supreme Court yes.
The Supreme Court oral arguments come at a significant moment in bilateral relations. The U.S. implemented 25% tariffs on Mexican goods Tuesday, both nations have militarized their shared border to curb immigration and drug trafficking, and Washington has designated Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
The case, Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos, is not aimed at influencing the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment nor at preventing law-abiding U.S. citizens from buying guns, says Jonathan Lowy, president and founder of Global Action on Gun Violence.
“The U.S. would be as much or more of a beneficiary of the success in this lawsuit as Mexico,” says Mr. Lowy, who is working on the case on behalf of Mexico. “In Mexico, the cartel violence drives migration across the border. It facilitates drug trafficking into the U.S. … To prevent all that from happening, you have to stop the crime-gun pipeline coming from the U.S. gun industry across the border into the hands of the cartels.”
Easy access to U.S. guns
Cartel violence in Mexico has long been a stain on the country’s reputation for a warm and welcoming culture. More than 30,000 people have been killed annually in Mexico over the past six years, often amid headlines of grisly civilian ambushes and shootouts between well-armed criminals and the military.
It’s difficult to legally obtain a gun in Mexico. There are only two official gun shops in the entire country, both run by the Mexican ministry of defense. Mexicans must pass a psychological test, drug screening, and an extensive background check – a process that can last about two months – and then must step onto an army base to actually enter a shop.
In contrast, there are more than 75,000 gun dealerships in the United States.
The idea for this case was first sparked by a 2019 mass shooting in an El Paso, Texas, Walmart, says Alejandro Celorio Alcantara, the principal legal adviser in Mexico’s ministry of foreign affairs at the time. More than a third of the 23 people who were killed in the shooting were Mexican citizens.
Marcelo Ebrard, then foreign minister, threatened to open a terrorist probe, while simultaneously Mr. Celorio was in touch with Mr. Lowy, discussing how they might sue the store that sold the weapon.
But then came the Culiacanazo, or Battle of Culiacán. Two months after the Walmart shooting, Mexican armed forces captured the drug-trafficking son of former Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in the northwestern city of Culiacán.
Instead of the moment being a photo-op victory in Mexico’s war against drug cartels, it became a debacle. Cartel members using automatic weapons blocked main arteries across the city, quickly outgunning soldiers. Overpowered, the government released El Chapo’s son, Ovidio Guzmán López.
“In broad daylight, the cartel was showing its firepower. We realized [the legal issue] is something bigger” than just the seller of one rifle used in a terror attack targeting Mexicans, says Mr. Celorio, who now serves as senior legal counsel at the nonprofit G37 Centre. The legal strategy is “still commercial negligence,” he says, “but it’s for all the guns, all the harm caused by the gun trafficking from the United States.”
Mexican shootings with American arms
Mexico’s federal attorney general and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) have worked together to trace the origin and number of firearms in Mexico coming from or through the U.S. for years.
The federal attorney general has found that 70% to 90% of firearms traced after recovery in Mexico originated or passed through the U.S., though ATF put the rate lower, at 68%. Between 2016 and 2022, ATF identified a 105% increase in U.S. rifles in Mexico. The presence of U.S. pistols found in Mexico grew 75% in that same period.
ATF routinely alerts gunmakers when the firearms they sell are recovered at crime scenes in Mexico.
Mr. Lowy underscores that 90% of U.S. gun shops do their job “legally, safely, and responsibly,” he says. “The problem is you have a small percentage of gun dealers who will sell to anyone if they’re making money off it. … And manufacturers are happy to use those dealers and not have any sort of safe sales practices or training required of their downstream sellers, even though they know they are supplying to the crime pipeline.”
He argues this case falls into an exception in the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects gun manufacturers from liability when one of their guns is used in a crime. Mexico argues the gunmaker is “aiding and abetting” the trafficking of guns to cartels.
Overreach by Mexico?
Mexico – with the backing of a dozen victims of cartel violence in a supporting amicus brief – is asking for monetary damages equivalent to roughly $10 billion dollars, and a court order requiring firearms manufacturers to change their sales practices.
Gun rights groups argue that Mexico is trying to bankrupt the U.S. firearms industry and undermine the Second Amendment.
The U.S. House of Representatives in December last year argued in an amicus brief that the federal regulation of the gun industry was within its scope. It notes that Congress has already specifically declined to adopt items that Mexico is arguing for, such as requiring the integration of locking technologies into all guns.
Nonetheless, the presence of automatic weapons – and Mexico’s homicide rate – has spiraled since 2005, following the expiration of the U.S. ban on assault weapons, experts say.
Few believe halting arms trafficking alone will resolve Mexico’s violence, but it’s an important start.
“We’re partnering with the U.S. on bilateral efforts; we’re part of the arms trade treaty. There’s a lot we’re doing, but if the [sale] of firearms in the U.S. continues to be negligent, the trafficking is going to continue,” says Mr. Celorio.
He acknowledges, however, that there have been some victories in this ongoing battle.
“There’s more awareness, more interest in the harm caused by U.S. guns in Mexico. … I think this effort is already a success.”
