OKLAHOMA CITY (June 3, 2024) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond and a coalition of 27 state attorneys general are defending American firearms manufacturers from the Mexican government’s attempt to hold the companies liable for gun violence in Mexico. If a lower court’s ruling is allowed to stand, Americans’ Second Amendment rights could be threatened.
In a petition filed last week, Drummond asked the U.S. Supreme Court to correct a lower court’s ruling in Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc., et al., v. Mexico to prevent foreign nations like Mexico from using American courts to limit the rights of American citizens.
The Mexican government is attempting to deflect blame for its own domestic failures, claiming that firearms manufacturers should be held liable for the gun violence occurring south of the border. Mexico argues that since the manufacturers know some of their products are unlawfully trafficked into their country, they should pay. However, Congress enacted the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005 (PLCAA) to balance Americans’ Second Amendment right with the need to keep guns away from criminals while protecting firearms companies from being held liable for crimes committed with their products.
“This lawsuit by the Mexican government is nothing more than a hostile act by a foreign country aimed at bankrupting American firearms manufacturers,” Drummond said. “We cannot allow Mexico to undermine the Second Amendment and infringe on the rights of American citizens to keep and bear arms.”
Mexico’s case was first dismissed by a federal judge in Massachusetts in 2022. Then, on appeal, the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals held that Mexico’s claims fall within an exception to PLCAA, which narrowly authorizes suits alleging knowing violations of firearms laws that proximately cause a plaintiff’s injuries. To fit Mexico’s case into that narrow exception, the First Circuit's decision relies on an expansive view of proximate causation that will eviscerate PLCAA.
The attorneys general argue that the petition should be granted for three key reasons:
- Congress, not the judiciary, regulates the firearms industry;
- The court should act to enforce PLCAA and address the scope of its exceptions; and
- Mexico’s sovereign power undercuts any claim of proximate causation.
“Mexico could simply close — indeed, militarize — its border with the United States if it chose to do so,” states one brief. “Doubtless, closure would be painful, and Mexico has chosen otherwise. Indeed, Mexico has flung its border open and sought to extort billions of dollars from the United States even attempting to manage resulting chaos. Mexico should not be permitted to exert de facto control over rights of American citizens alleviating consequences its own policy choices.”
Joining Oklahoma in this Montana-led brief are Arizona legislature and attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia Idaho Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi Missouri Nebraska New Hampshire North Dakota South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia West Virginia Wyoming.
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