Mexico accuses U.S. gun makers of fueling cartel violence and criminal acts in unprecedented lawsuit

Mexico is suing several gun manufacturers in the United States in a bid to curb the number of firearms flowing over the border, which officials claim have been routinely used to carry out criminal acts and cartel gang violence across the country.

The unprecedented lawsuit, filed in U.S. federal court in Boston this week, is seeking more than $10 billion in damages, according to the New York Times. It accuses Smith & Wesson, Barrett Firearms, and Colt’s Manufacturing Company, Glock Inc, Sturm, Ruger & Co of fueling violence in Mexico through their reckless and negligent business dealings.

In this Thursday, March 1, 2018, photo a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 Sport rifle chambered in 5.56 mm is shown in front of a rack of other rifles at Duke's Sport Shop in New Castle, Pa. (Keith Srakocic / AP/)

“For decades, the government and its citizens have been victimized by a deadly flood of military-style and other particularly lethal guns that flows from the U.S. across the border,” according to the suit, which also notes that the “torrent” of illegal firearms coming into Mexico is “the foreseeable result of the defendants’ deliberate actions and business practices.”

According to the lawsuit, the companies specifically target foreign audiences, sometimes by using “marketing strategies to promote weapons that are ever more lethal, without mechanisms of security or traceability.” It specifically cited a a special edition .38 Colt pistol, which is engraved with the face of the Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata.

Bullet holes scar a home’s exterior wall, on the outskirts of the municipality of Valparaiso, Zacatecas state, Mexico, Wednesday, July 14. (Marco Ugarte/)

It is also engraved with a quote that has been attributed to him: “It is better to die standing than to live on your knees.”

In 2017, the model was reportedly used by a member of the Sinola Cartel in the murder of a Mexican investigative journalist, Miroslava Breach Velducea.

National Guard patrol the Zacatecas-Fresnillo highway after a series of recent attacks and clashes between drug cartels in Zacatecas state, Mexico, Tuesday, July 13. There are more than 100,000 guardsmen deployed in Mexico, plus the military, yet the bloodshed continues. (Marco Ugarte/)

Mexican government officials said the billions in damages will cover the destruction and terror triggered by the gun violence and hope that the suit will bring an end to “the unlawful trafficking of their guns to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico.”

The U,S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that 70% of firearms recovered in Mexico between 2014 and 2018 which were submitted for tracing had come from the U.S. In 2019 alone, at least 17,000 homicides were linked to trafficked weapons.