BOSTON (Reuters) – Thirteen U.S. states and two Latin America and Caribbean nations on Monday threw their help behind a lawsuit from Mexico that accuses a number of main U.S. gun makers of facilitating the trafficking of weapons to drug cartels, resulting in 1000’s of deaths.
The states and the nations of Antigua and Barbuda and Belize filed separate briefs urging a federal choose in Boston to not dismiss Mexico’s $10 billion lawsuit against corporations together with Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Co.
The corporations have argued Mexico has failed to ascertain its harms have been attributable to them and {that a} U.S. legislation, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, protected gun makers from lawsuits over their merchandise’ misuse.
Mexico’s legal professionals in a submitting on Monday countered that the legislation solely precludes lawsuits over accidents that happen within the United States and wouldn’t protect the businesses from allegations over the trafficking of weapons to Mexican criminals.
Democratic attorneys normal from 13 states together with Massachusetts, California and New York together with the District of Columbia agreed, saying even when that legislation utilized extraterritorially, the statute wouldn’t bar Mexico’s claims.
Representatives for the businesses didn’t reply to requests for remark. Other defendants embody Beretta USA, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Colt’s Manufacturing Co and Glock Inc.
In a lawsuit filed in August, Mexico claimed the businesses undermined its strict gun legal guidelines by designing, advertising and distributing military-style assault weapons in methods they knew would arm drug cartels, fueling murders, extortions and kidnappings.
Mexico’s lawsuit stated over 500,000 weapons are trafficked yearly from the United States into Mexico, of which greater than 68% are made by the producers it sued.
Lawyers for Antigua and Barbuda and Belize argued nations of their area had likewise confronted violent gun crimes and that U.S. gun producers “should not be permitted to carry hostage the law-abiding residents of a complete area of the world.”
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
