(Washington) The United States Supreme Court on Thursday deemed a complaint from Mexico against American weapons manufacturers, accused of fueling the violence of drug drugs on its territory on Thursday.
Unanimously, the nine judges of the Court with a conservative majority consider that the 2005 law on the protection of the legal trade in arms (PLCAA) immunizes manufacturers against unlawful use of their products.
Mexico stresses that the vast majority of weapons on crime locations in its territory come from smuggling with the United States, in particular due to the ease of obtaining weapons in this country. He accuses American manufacturers of looking at the trafficking of their products and claimed billions of dollars in damages.
Mexico has failed to demonstrate an active “complicity” of manufacturers with arms traffickers, but at best “indifference” on their part in the face of this phenomenon, according to the judgment of the high jurisdiction.
The Mexican government expressed its “disagreement” with the decision of the Supreme Court, ensuring that it would continue to “do everything in its power to slow down the illicit traffic of weapons, using all the legal and diplomatic resources available”.
“These manufacturers know that they sell a dangerous product to crooked merchants who sell them to straw men in the service of cartels,” said Mexico lawyer in March, Catherine Stetson.
The lawyer for arms manufacturers, Noel Francisco, had criticized Mexico for wanting to empty his substance the 2005 law.
“Great victory”
At the hearing, a clear majority of the nine judges had seemed to be released to reject the complaint.
In order for this complaint to be declared admissible, Mexico should both demonstrate that the behavior of these manufacturers was “complicity” of smuggling and establishing a causal link between their actions and the damage it undergoes.
In addition to the legal reserves expressed by several judges, progressive as conservatives, one of the latter, Brett Kavanaugh, had warned against “possible destructive consequences for the economy” if the Court adopted the conception of criminal responsibility due to complicity defended by Mexico, citing examples of the automotive or pharmaceutical industry.
The court therefore gives Thursday satisfaction to two American companies, Smith & Wesson and Interstate Arms, who asked him to cancel the procedure initiated by Mexico.
This decision “canceling the ridiculous proceedings against our company represents not only a great victory for Smith & Wesson, but also for our industry, for American sovereignty and, more important, for any American wishing to exercise its rights under the second amendment” of the Constitution on the port of weapons, welcomes the company in a press release.
The powerful weapons lobby, the NRA, claims on its side on X “an immense judicial victory”.
The influential Democratic Senator Dick Durbin recognizes “a temporary victory for arms manufacturers”. “The United States’s traffic in arms to Mexico feeds a cycle of enormous violence,” he said in a statement.
The decision of the Supreme Court “does not solve this crisis”, underlines the senator, at the origin of a bill entitled “Stop Arming Cartels” (stop armable the cartels) aimed at strengthening the regulation of arms trade.
Some 480,000 people have died of violent death linked to narcotrafic in Mexico since 2006, when the government has deployed the army to fight drug cartels, according to official statistics.
