Mexico urges US Supreme Court to let it sue American gunmakers over cartel violence

As President Donald Trump pressures Mexico to address the flow of migrants and drugs heading north into the United States, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Tuesday in a major appeal about one thing that’s crossing the border toward Mexico: guns.

As President Donald Trump pressures Mexico to address the flow of migrants and drugs heading north into the United States, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Tuesday in a major appeal about one thing that’s crossing the border toward Mexico: guns. Mexico sued Smith & Wesson and six other major US gun makers in 2021 for $10 billion in damages, alleging that the companies design and market their guns specifically to drug cartels that then use them in the “killing and maiming of children, judges, journalists, police, and ordinary citizens throughout Mexico.” The Supreme Court agreed to review the case last October, a month before Trump was elected to a second term. Since then, US-Mexican relations have been upended as Trump threatens tariffs – including a new round set to take effect on Tuesday – to pressure the Mexican government. The case does not center on the Second Amendment, but gun-control and gun rights groups are nevertheless closely engaged in the fight. “The gun industry defendants are trying to use this case to rewrite the law and dramatically expand their immunity to include actions that break the law,” David Pucino, legal director with the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence told CNN. “The Supreme Court should reject that dangerous invitation to shut the courthouse door on victims of gun violence.” The Mexican government argues that between 70% and 90% of guns recovered at crime scenes in its country are made in the United States. There is only one gun store in all of Mexico, its lawyers said, and “yet the nation is awash in guns.”