A federal judge in the United States issued his verdict on a lawsuit filed by Mexico against eleven different arms manufacturers for facilitating the trafficking of their products into Mexico.
The judge in Boston dismissed the million-dollar complaint because the companies mentioned are protected by federal law in the US from liability.
On Friday, September 30, 2022, the District Judge of Boston, F. Dennis Saylor, dismissed the appeal filed by the Mexican government, for $10 billion dollars, in which they sought to hold the company Smith & Wesson Brands responsible, and eleven more manufacturers, for the increase in arms trafficking to Mexico, on the border of both territories, to various organized crime cartels.
The argument Saylor used to support his decision was rooted in US federal law. According to his statement, the code prohibits any lawsuit that seeks to hold gun manufacturers liable when the purchaser uses the gun for its intended purpose. Although he recognized the limitation of the law in the case, he denied that any could favor the purposes of the Mexican government.
“While the court has considerable sympathy for the people of Mexico and none for those who traffic weapons to Mexican criminal organizations, it has a duty to comply with (United States) law,” the judge stated in the 44 pages published with his ruling.
The motive of the Mexican authorities when they filed the lawsuit against the manufacturers was that the characteristics and design of the weapons sent to the country violated the prohibitions in force in Mexico.
