Mexico sues US gunmakers for rampant bloodshed in the country

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Mexico filed a lawsuit against American gun makers and retailers on Wednesday due to their unlawful arms selling.
• The Mexican government is seeking compensation for the massive violence caused by the gun bloodshed in the country.
• Thousands of guns were smuggled by powerful drug cartels from the US.

The Mexican government filed a lawsuit against US gun makers and distributors on Wednesday, noting that their illegal selling and unaccountability have left Mexico in massive bloodshed.

The suit was filed in US federal court in Boston. The complaint was addressed against the following businesses: Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc.; Barret Firearms Manufacturing, Inc.; Beretta U.S.A. Corp.; Colt’s Manufacturing Company LLC, and Glock Inc. Boston-based wholesaler Interstate Arms was also included in the suit.

Mexico has sought compensation over the violence that has tormented the nation, asserting that the arm companies and sellers facilitated the gun trafficking and proliferated the presence of guns.

The lawsuit stated that the Mexican government is making “this action to put an end to the massive damage that the Defendants cause by actively facilitating the unlawful trafficking of their guns to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico.”

The government also claimed that the bulk of the guns recovered in crime scenes across the country had been trafficked from the US.

In Mexico, selling firearms is managed by the Defense Department and confined within the country. Thousands of guns, however, are being smuggled by influential Mexican drug cartels from the US.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said that the country would explore legal remedies at the time when a gunman in Texas fatally shot 23 people inside Walmart in August 2019. Some Mexican citizens were among the people who got killed.

The government said on Wednesday that the US courts’ recent rulings about gun violence became instrumental to Mexico’s move to sue the American gun retailers. The suit cited some existing judicial cases such as the lawsuits against Smith & Wesson and Century Arms in California, and Remington Arms, which were linked in the infamous Connecticut mass school shooting last 2012.

Source: ABC7.com