Mexico’s foreign minister nominated for arms control Award following a lawsuit against U.S. gun companies
shahennews
Last August, the Mexican government, on the initiative of Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, filed a lawsuit against U.S.-based gun manufacturers and distributors, in a Massachusetts federal district court, for acts and omissions that cause direct and indirect harm to Mexico. As a general request, Mexico asked a U.S. Federal Court to impose liability on these companies and hold them accountable for their negligent and illicit commercial practices that actively facilitate unlawful trafficking of guns into Mexico.
According to the lawsuit, the steady rise in homicides in Mexico since 2004 was simultaneous to the U.S. guns companies’ increased production, distribution, and marketing of their military-grade weapons. It therefore claims that the growing flow of guns into Mexico from that time on, and their resulting illicit use was a foreseeable result of deliberate decisions to design, market, and sell guns in ways the companies knew, with relative certainty, would arm criminals in Mexico.
The government of Mexico has strong domestic laws that make it virtually impossible for criminals to lawfully obtain guns in Mexico. There is only one gun store in the entire nation and it issues fewer than 50 gun permits per year.
It is estimated that more than a half-million guns annually are trafficked from the U.S. into Mexico. The gun companies targeted in the lawsuit produce more than 68% of those U.S.-origin trafficked guns, which means that they annually sell more than 340,000 guns that flow from their plants in Massachusetts and other U.S. states to criminals south of the border. Despite these figures, the gun manufacturers and distributors have not implemented any public safety-related monitoring or disciplining controls on their distribution systems.
The civil lawsuit is an additional effort from the Government of Mexico to stop the illicit flow of handguns and semiautomatic rifles to Mexico. It also requires the gun companies to set and implement strict standards to monitor their distribution systems; to provide all reasonably available safety mechanisms into their guns to prevent their use by unauthorized users; to fund studies, programs, advertising campaigns focused on preventing unlawful trafficking of guns; and to take all necessary actions to mitigate current and future harm that their use is causing or will cause in Mexico.
On December 8th, the Arms Control Association, a U.S. nonpartisan membership organization, nominated the Government of Mexico and Foreign Affairs Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, for the “2021 Arms Control Person of the Year” in recognition of the lawsuit’s novel approach to combat illicit weapons trafficking. This nongovernmental organization annually awards individuals and institutions that have advanced effective arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament solutions and raised awareness of the threats posed by mass casualty weapons.
