Mexico’s Long Shot

 

Back on May 31, 2018, I published a blog entitled Donald Wants a Wall with Mexico, but Mexico Needs One! Of course, it was about the massive illicit flow of arms, particularly military-grade assault weapons purchased easily at US gun retailers and gun shows, smuggled into Mexico, most of which weapons wound/wind up with the cartels. What many Americans do not know is that Mexico actually has a constitutional provision that gives its citizens a reasonable right to buy and possess firearms. A real constitutional provision, not distorted as is our Second Amendment, which was on its face constructed solely to service a “well regulated militia.”

While gun ownership is a right across our southern border, Mexico shares an aversion to private gun ownership with most of the rest of the world. “Like the 2nd Amendment in the United States, Mexico’s Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms, but it also stipulates that federal law ‘will determine the cases, conditions, requirements and places’ of gun ownership. For many Mexicans, even those who love guns, the thought of an unfettered right to owning one is perplexing… 

“[The permitting application process takes months and] would-be gun owners in Mexico must offer a birth certificate and proof that they are employed, and have no criminal record. The atmosphere at the directorate is more sterile than at a U.S. gun store or pawnshop. There are no moose heads on the wall and no promotional specials. Guns stamped with the army’s logo are kept in locked cases and customers aren’t given the chance to heft a rifle to their shoulder to see how it feels.

“Buyers spend hours shuffling between different counters to get their paperwork processed, waiting for long stretches under fluorescent lights in uncomfortable chairs. It feels a bit like the Department of Motor Vehicles, until one notices the no-nonsense army colonel running things and the machine-gun-toting soldiers patrolling the aisles.

“The store manager, Col. Eduardo Tellez, said he believes gun ownership is a privilege. He sees his job as making sure firearms end up in the hands of ‘moral and responsible’ people only.

“Current law allows citizens one handgun and up to nine rifles if they can prove they are members of shooting or hunting clubs. A separate permit that is difficult to obtain is required to carry the guns in public.” LA Times, 5/29/18. There are tens of thousands of legal guns in Mexico, but the number of illicit weapons there is definitely in the seven-figure category. Effectively US demand for illegal narcotics combined with the smuggling of freely obtainable firearms, have turned much of Latin America into a series of mega-corrupt and ultra-violent narco-states. Mexico is no exception. They estimate that the death and destruction in Mexico attributed to the use of US-sourced firearms to have cost somewhere around 1.7%-2% of their GDP, which would be about $10 billion. What can Mexico do about that?

“The Mexican government sued U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors Wednesday in U.S. federal court, arguing that their negligent and illegal commercial practices have unleashed tremendous bloodshed in Mexico… The unusual lawsuit was filed in federal court in Boston. Among those being sued are some of the biggest names in guns, including: Smith & Wesson Brands Inc., Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Inc., Beretta U.S.A. Corp., Colt’s Manufacturing Co. LLC and Glock Inc. Another defendant is Interstate Arms, a Boston-area wholesaler that sells guns from all but one of the named manufacturers to dealers around the United States…

“The Mexican government argues that the companies know that their practices contribute to the trafficking of guns to Mexico and facilitate it. Mexico wants compensation for the havoc the guns have wrought in its country… The Mexican government ‘brings this action to put an end to the massive damage that the Defendants cause by actively facilitating the unlawful trafficking of their guns to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico,’ the lawsuit said… The government estimates that 70% of the weapons trafficked to Mexico come from the U.S., according to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and that in 2019 alone at least 17,000 homicides were linked to trafficked weapons.” Associated Press, August 5th.

Mexico claim that the gunmakers even create weapons targeted toward the illicit Mexican gun market: “The gun manufacturers ‘are conscious of the fact that their products are trafficked and used in illicit activities against the civilian population and authorities of Mexico,’ the [Mexican] Foreign Ministry said in a document related to the lawsuit.

“Mexico said the companies had used ‘marketing strategies to promote weapons that are ever more lethal, without mechanisms of security or traceability.’… Mexican officials said that some of the guns made by Colt appeared to target the Mexican market in particular, such as a pistol engraved with the face and name of Mexican revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata [pictured above].

“Mexico has strict rules regulating the sale of weapons and they can only be purchased legally at one shop located on an army base in the capital… As a result, those who want to buy weapons often get them from the US.” BBC.com, August 5th. 

There are so many barriers to generating a successful result to that lawsuit, not the least of which is a conservative US Supreme Court loathe to limit gun ownership: “Steve Shadowen, the lead attorney representing Mexico, said that in the early 2000s about 30 U.S. cities brought similar litigation against gun manufacturers, arguing that they should be responsible for increased police, hospitalization and other costs associated with gun violence… As some cities started winning, gun manufacturers went to Congress and got an immunity statute for the manufacturers. Shadowen said he believes that immunity doesn’t apply when the injury occurs outside the United States… [He believes] ‘That statute just simply doesn’t apply. It only applies when you’re in the United States.’…

“Adam Winkler, a law professor at UCLA and expert on gun policy, called Mexico’s effort a ‘long shot… It is a bold and innovative lawsuit... [adding,] ‘We haven’t seen anything like this before. The gun manufacturers have enjoyed broad immunity from lawsuits for now two decades’… He said he had not seen arguments that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act applies only to damages in the United States.” Associated Press. However you look at this deadly situation, all of the negative signs point to the United States, where a gun culture is so pervasive that our nation clearly seems to prioritize gun ownership over the lives of its own children. Hard to see how a lawsuit seeking to assess justifiable gunmaker responsibility as seemingly obvious perpetrators could succeed in our nation. Justice? Forgetaboutit!

I’m Peter Dekom, and our distorted constitutional interpretation over gunowner rights makes the United States an extreme outlier among virtually every other nation on earth.