Faced with the rampant violence and record-high homicide rates driven in part by weapons from the US, Mexico has brought a landmark lawsuit against several major US gun makers, accusing them of negligence that actively facilitates the illegal guns trafficking to Mexican drug cartels, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in the US District Court in Boston claims that top US gun makers, including Glock, Barrett, Colt and Smith & Wesson violated Mexico’s stricter gun ownership laws allowing and facilitating illegal arms trafficking with its negligent business practices.
Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard pointed that the $10 billion claim in damages is not mere compensation claim but also an effort to push standards’ implementation for monitoring and discipline the gun makers whose damaging activities are resulting in numerous Mexican deaths.
According to Mexican authorities, around two-thirds of more than 500,000 weapons smuggled in the country each year are made by the companies named in the lawsuit, and it was involved in more than 17,000 murders in 2019 alone.
Ebrard is confident they’ll win the landmark case and will drastically reduce arms trafficking to Mexico in cooperation with the US government he believes is willing to work together with Mexico in dealing with the issue.
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