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Editor’s note: The below commentary was contributed by Javier Diaz de Leon, consul general of Mexico in Atlanta, who heads up the country’s diplomatic mission covering Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. The consulate handles economic and political affairs as well as and matters pertaining to Mexican citizens within the jurisdiction. The companies named in the civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston had until Nov. 22 to offer their legal response. They filed a 58-page brief arguing that Mexico has no standing to file the case and asking the judge to throw it out.
Media outlets worldwide have reported on the civil action that the Government of Mexico presented on Aug. 4 against several gun manufacturers in the United States, for damages caused by their active facilitation of unlawful trafficking of their guns to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico. The lawsuit is a tort law case against these companies for acts and omissions that have caused direct and indirect harm to Mexico.
First and foremost, it is essential to underline that the lawsuit is in no shape or form directed against the U.S. government nor against the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which gives the right to Americans to keep and bear arms in their country. Instead, Mexico is asking a U.S. federal court to impose liability on 11 companies and hold them accountable for their negligent and illicit commercial practices that actively have facilitated unlawful trafficking of their guns into Mexico.
One of Mexico’s key priorities within its bilateral relationship with the United States is the urgent halt of the illegal flow of firearms and ammunition coming down the border, which strengthens organized crime and decreases public security in Mexico. Our long border (almost 2,000 miles) is the convergence point for criminal groups responsible for the illicit southbound flow of money and firearms.
Today, Mexico is flooded by guns coming from the U.S. It is estimated that more than a half-million firearms are trafficked annually from the U.S. into Mexico. And based on tracing performed by Mexican and American authorities, between 70 percent and 90 percent of all weapons confiscated by Mexican security forces crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illicitly.
Stronger and more effective firearms in the hands of organized crime overshadow Mexican public security forces and pummel living standards in several cities and communities by causing homicide rates to skyrocket. Based on official figures, the proportion of homicides in Mexico committed with firearms has soared from 15 percent in 1997 to 69 percent in 2018.
Not only are these guns increasingly effective, with even greater firepower, but also the efficiency of traffickers to replace seized ammo and firearms is impressive. It takes cartels around 15 days to acquire a new arsenal when Mexican authorities confiscate their lethal firepower. The formula is based on the proximity to the border and the availability of gun flows. Most illicit firearms and ammunition in Mexico come from Texas (41 percent), California (19 percent), and Arizona (15 percent); the rest of the U.S. makes up the remaining 25 percent. Online purchases and gun shows are well-known resources for so-called “straw purchasers” who seek to acquire almost all kinds of firearms with weak security-check procedures. These purchasers later smuggle guns and ammunition by vehicle into Mexico. Texas, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee have had the highest share of gun shows during the last decade.
The defendants targeted in the Mexican lawsuit produce and distribute more than 68 percent of those U.S.-origin trafficked guns, which means that they annually sell more than 340,000 guns that flow from their plants in the United States to criminals south of the border. They are entirely aware of the massive trafficking of their guns into Mexico (there is even evidence that weapons are personalized for criminals). However, their policy is to sell to any licensed distributor or dealer without any public safety monitoring or disciplining controls within their distribution systems.
The damage left behind by the combination of organized crime and illegal distribution of American-made firearms is sobering. According to the Global Conflict Tracker of the Council of Foreign Relations, since 2006, there have been 150,000 estimated deaths due to organized criminal violence in Mexico. This amount is staggering and results from a biased security approach that has historically targeted only organized crime and cartels in Mexico, without a similarly strong policy aimed at freezing financial and firearms flows from North to South. Fortunately, our new Mexico-U.S. shared approach takes into account the flaws made in the past. The High-Level Security Dialogue headed by Secretaries Antony Blinken and Alejandro Mayorkas, along with Attorney General Merrick Garland, in Mexico City, underscores our new common vision.
Organized crime violence in Mexico threatens not only 120 million Mexicans and the lives of 1.5 million Americans that have made Mexico their home and share family ties on both sides of the border. These firearms, especially the automatic and semiautomatic, give enough power to organized crime to threaten all Americans by sending drugs into the United States and engaging in other lucrative and illegal activities, such as money laundering and human trafficking.
Mexico has sued 11 companies, six of which are U.S.-based manufacturers, whose guns are most often recovered in Mexico: Smith & Wesson, Beretta, Century Arms, Colt, Glock and Ruger. Another manufacturer defendant is Barrett, whose .50 caliber sniper rifle is a weapon of war prized by drug cartels. Another defendant —Interstate Arms — is a Boston-area wholesaler through which all but one of the defendant manufacturers sell their guns for re-sale to gun dealers throughout the U.S.
This civil lawsuit is a bold effort of the Government of Mexico aimed at stopping the illicit flow of ammunition, handguns and semiautomatic rifles to Mexico, an issue that was a core part of the recent High Level Security Dialogue in Mexico City. Strengthening our common vision and partnership on issues such as this one, which affects millions of lives on both our countries, is our responsibility and purpose.
Javier Diaz de Leon is the Consul General of Mexico in Atlanta