Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Smith & Wesson v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos. This is the case in which the Mexican government is trying to tie the carnage wrought by their cartels to American gunmakers, alleging the “defendants know that their guns are trafficked into Mexico and make deliberate design, marketing, and distribution choices to retain and grow that illegal market and the substantial profits that it produces.” Mexico accuses the gunmakers of facilitating straw purchases, concealing “off-the-book” sales of firearms by declaring them lost or stolen, and marketing their guns in such a way as to appeal to the cartels..
This is exactly the type of lawsuit the Protection of the Lawful Commerce In Arms Act (PLCAA) was intended to prevent and a federal district court in the First Judicial Circuit dismissed Mexico’s case.
The decision was appealed to the next level and reversed by a three-judge panel in the First Circuit Court of Appeals. The appellate court again dismissed the majority of lawsuit but it accepted Mexico’s allegations the gun companies were aiding and abetting the illegal trafficking of guns to Mexico.
Sounds like what the U.S. Department of Justice did in its “Fast and Furious” scheme during the Obama Administration.
Then there’s the fact Mexico’s own military and police forces have been sources of firepower for the cartels, which have weapons not sold by American gun shops.
It’s not over until its over, but people that have some experience with Supreme Court oral hearings are inclined to predict Mexico isn’t going to be happy, which is how it should have been from the start.
The American attorney behind the lawsuit is Jonathan Lowy, a Harvard Law School graduate based in Washington, D.C. Lowy founded Global Action on Gun Violence in 2022 after having been the lead counsel for the Brady Bunch since 1997.
When the Supreme Court issued its decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen in 2022, Lowy (still with the Brady Bunch at that time) said: “In a stroke of the pen, the Supreme Court today has invented a supposed right to carry, virtually anywhere, loaded guns – to potentially shoot and kill other people. The Court has chosen to obstruct Americans from obtaining the common sense laws they want and need to protect their families and communities, a decision that defies centuries of gun regulation. As dangerous as the decision is, its legal reasoning is worse; the Court relies on alternative history, disregarding historical facts that are inconvenient for its policy agenda, and basically erases half of the Second Amendment’s text, and its purpose to protect well-regulated militia. This is extremist judicial activism at its worst, and Americans may die as a result of what the Court issued in the sanctity of its protected chambers. We can not let this dictate America’s future.”
Perhaps instead of Bruen, Lowy should have refamiliarized himself with Heller. Scalia’s majority opinion in Heller would have skewered just about all of Lowy’s statements.
Lowy has been busy. Now his marquee action is Joaquin Oliver v. USA, which the GAGV website calls “The Lawsuit for Survival.” The lawsuit-in-progress charges the U.S. government for “failing to protect people’s right to live free from gunfire and causing Joaquin’s death in the Parkland high school gun massacre.”
Since the U.S. Constitution, as amended, does not include a “right to live free from gunfire,” Lowy wants the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to request the U.S. to “implement strong gun policies to prevent mass shootings and other gun violence.” The IACHR is part of the Organization of American States and doesn’t have any direct authority over the U.S., so the most it can do is pass a resolution, which. probably wouldn’t get a warm reception from the Trump Administration.
In case the name “Joaquin Oliver” sounds familiar, it’s because Oliver’s parents used AI to synthesize his voice and used that to make anti-gun phone calls to elected officials. Don’t have any evidence that Lowy was part of this, but wouldn’t be surprised.
