Supreme Court Takes Case That Could Decide Future of America’s Gun Industry

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In a case that will have major implications for the future of the American gun industry, the Supreme Court agreed on Friday to take up Mexico’s $10 billion lawsuit against American gun manufacturers.

The case, Estados Unidos Mexicanos v. Smith and Wesson, alleges the gunmakers engaged in business practices that led to the “killing and maiming of children, judges, journalists, police, and ordinary citizens throughout Mexico.”

The lawsuit has followed a series of twists and turns since Mexico filed it against gunmakers in Massachusetts in 2021. In 2022, a federal judge dismissed the case, citing the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which grants firearm manufacturers broad immunity from civil lawsuits regarding “criminal or unlawful misuse” of their products.

In January, the Boston-based First Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals revived the lawsuit as Mexico’s lawyers argued the 2005 law did not grant the companies immunity for the trafficking of firearms to criminals in Mexico.

In August, a federal district judge, Dennis Saylor, tossed out charges against six of the eight companies listed in the lawsuit, saying their links to the case were “gossamer-thin at best.” Judge Saylor noted those six companies were not incorporated in Massachusetts.

The remaining companies in the lawsuit are Smith & Wesson Brands, which said in 2021 it was moving its headquarters to Massachusetts from Tennessee, and a wholesaler, Witmer Public Safety Group.

Attorneys for the gunmakers asked the Supreme Court to block the lawsuit, saying, “Mexico makes no secret that it abhors this country’s approach to firearms, and that it wants to use the American court system to impose domestic gun controls on the United States that the American people themselves would never accept through the ordinary political process.”

The National Association for Gun Rights cheered the court for agreeing to hear the case. In a statement, the organization’s president, Dudley Brown, warned that the “ramifications are unthinkable” if Mexico wins its lawsuit.

“It would pretty much put gun manufacturers out of business, undermine U.S. sovereignty, and replace it with United Nations-style gun controls bypassing Congress and the Second Amendment in the process,” he said.

Meanwhile, a gun control advocacy organization that is representing Mexico in the lawsuit, Global Action on Gun Violence, insisted its case is “strong and fully supported by the law.”

The group’s president, Jonathan Lowy, said, “We look forward to defending that decision before the U.S. Supreme Court.

As Democrats and liberal activists have been frustrated by what they see as a lack of action on gun control, they have been pushing to change the law, or weaken it in the courts, so that gunmakers can be sued after shooting incidents.

In 2021, President Biden announced new executive actions on gun control and honed in on liability protections as he shared the one thing he would ask God to accomplish for him.

“This is the only outfit that is exempt from being sued. If I get one thing on my list — the Lord came down and said, ‘Joe, you get one of these’ — give me that one,” Mr. Biden said of removing liability protections for gunmakers.

Supporters of the firearm industry argue that removing liability protections would put gunmakers out of business.

The implication that the gun industry has blanket immunity from lawsuits is not true, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Gunmakers can be sued under six exceptions, including defects or damages in firearm design, negligence, or a breach of contract or warranty.

In 2019, the Supreme Court allowed a lawsuit against Remington Arms Company brought by families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting to proceed. It did not comment on the decision to deny Remington’s bid to block the lawsuit. Families of nine of the victims reached a $73 million settlement in 2022.

Remington filed for bankruptcy in 2018 as it pointed to a drop in sales and financial hardships following the Sandy Hook shooting.

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