US supreme court will rule on $10bn suit Mexico filed against US gun makers

The US supreme court said on Friday it will decide whether to block a $10bn lawsuit Mexico filed against US gun manufacturers and distributors that argues that their negligent and illegal commercial practices have unleashed bloodshed in the country.

The lawsuit, filed in Boston in August, names Smith & Wesson, Barrett Firearms, Beretta, Colt and Glock, as well as Boston-area wholesaler Interstate Arms.

The Mexican government says it wants 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”.

Mexico says 70% of the weapons trafficked to Mexico come from the US, according to the foreign affairs ministry. In 2019 alone, at least 17,000 homicides were linked to trafficked weapons, it has said.

Alejandro Celorio, legal advisor for the Mexican government, has said the damage caused by the trafficked guns would be equal to 1.7% to 2% of Mexico’s GDP.

But the firearms industry, through its US lobbying body, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, has said the allegations in the lawsuit are “baseless”.

“The Mexican government is responsible for the rampant crime and corruption within their own borders,” said Lawrence Keane, the group’s senior vice-president and general counsel, said when the lawsuit was filed in 2021.

Related: Mass shootings upended their lives. Now survivors are making the gun industry pay

That case has been through a number of lower court rulings. It was initially tossed out by a district court, then revived by the first US circuit court of appeals. The gunmakers appealed that ruling to the supreme court, arguing they have followed lawful practices and the case has no business in US courts.

In August, US district judge Dennis Saylor dismissed the case against six of the eight companies, ruling that Mexico had not provided enough evidence that violence in the country was caused by US gun manufacturers’ negligence.

Now the supreme court has agreed to hear the gunmakers’ petition. Lawyers for Mexico defended the appeal court ruling’s rationale and argued that it was premature for the supreme court to take up the case.

Mexico claims US gunmakers know that the chain from manufacturer to distributor to dealer ends with sales to “straw buyers” who in turn sell them to the cartels, especially military-style weapons with serial numbers that are easy to erase.

Attorneys for Smith & Wesson contend Mexico is trying to use the American court system to bankrupt the American firearms industry based on a “novel and far-fetched” legal claim. They argue that they are no more responsible for what dealers do than Budweiser is for a liquor store selling beer to a minor.

Mexico is not the only country to claim that US guns are a de-stabilizing influence. A UN report in January estimated that half a million legal and illegal weapons had flooded into Haiti since 2020.

The US state department has indicated it plans a new policing unit in Haiti to address weapons being trafficked into the country, which continues to be destabilized by gang violence.