Arizona vendors challenge Mexico’s gun-smuggling lawsuit

Reuters and Arturo Sánchez Jiménez

Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday January 29, 2023, p. 5

Five Arizona arms dealers have filed a legal petition in a US court to dismiss a lawsuit by Mexico that accuses them of participating in arms trafficking into the country.

The motion notes that dealers are covered by the Protection of Legal Trade in Guns Act (PLCAA), a 2005 rule that protects gun manufacturers and sellers from liability when their products are used in a crime.

The complaint, filed in October, came days after a judge threw out another $10 billion Mexican government lawsuit against arms manufacturers it seeks to hold accountable for facilitating its access to violent drug cartels.

The judge in that case cited the PLCAA in his decision, which Mexico is appealing.

Lawyers for the defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Prepare counter-reply

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) is preparing a counter-reply to the five vendors’ request to dismiss the Mexican government’s claim.

We received a response from the arms dealers who are being sued by the Mexican government in Arizona. It will be analyzed to present the counter-replydeclared yesterday the legal consultant of the foreign ministry, Alejandro Celorio.

As expected, the defendants argue that they can continue to sell weapons to anyoneCelorio added.

They point out that there is nothing the Mexican government can do to prevent it or to hold them accountablehe expressed.

We will insist that negligent sellers who facilitate arms trafficking to Mexico be held accountableadded in messages on social networks.

The Mexican government has opened two lawsuits in the United States against arms manufacturers whom it accuses of having negligent business practices that allow the sale of weapons that they know will reach organized crime in Mexican territory.

Last year, District Court Judge Dennis Saylor in Massachusetts dismissed one of the Mexican government’s lawsuits against seven manufacturers and a wholesale distributor of firearms, arguing that the laws of that country unequivocally prohibit lawsuits seeking to hold gun manufacturers accountable for the acts of individuals who use them for their purposes.