Mexico sues gun stores in the US

This is the first civil lawsuit filed by a national government against arms sellers in the North American nation.

The Mexican government filed a second lawsuit in the US, this time against five gun stores in Arizona, which it blames for illicit arms trafficking to the Latin American country and its direct implications for violence.

These companies "are responsible for the sale of weapons that appear (in Mexico) in very serious crimes, in homicides, in femicides," said the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard.

"We are suing them because it is evident that there is arms trafficking and that it is known that these arms are headed for our country," Ebrard added about the complaint filed in the Federal District Court of Tucson, Arizona.

The five companies sued by Mexico are the following:

    Diamondback Shooting Sports, Inc. (based in Tucson).
    SNG Tactical, LLC (Tucson).
    Loan Prairie, LLC, known as The Hub Target Sports (Tucson).
    Ammo A-Z, LLC (Phoenix).
    Sprague's Sports, Inc. (Yuma).

In the complaint, Mexico alleges that these sellers routinely and systematically participate in the "illicit trafficking of weapons, including military-type weapons, for criminal organizations in Mexico through sales to straw purchasers and sales that are aimed at arms dealers".

Likewise, Ebrard explained that in Mexico "weapons are prohibited." For this reason, the Foreign Ministry proposed to the Tucson Court that the arms companies "be sanctioned", because arms trafficking is a "crime according to the latest reforms that were made" in the US.

Among its main demands, Mexico charged that arms sellers "do not comply with the due care to which they are obliged; they cause foreseeable damage; they use misleading and tendentious advertising; they sell weapons that are modified into automatic weapons; they cause disturbance to public order and violate state and federal laws, which causes enormous damage in Mexican territory".

This is the first civil lawsuit filed by a national government against arms sellers in the US that supply the criminal market, according to the Mexican Foreign Ministry.

US litigation

This is the second lawsuit filed by Mexico in US territory against the arms industry, after the lawsuit filed in the District Court in Boston, Massachusetts, in which Mexico accused eight arms companies of "negligence" in the process of sale of weapons, which makes it easier for criminals to access them, having a direct impact on the violence committed in Mexican territory.

The first lawsuit was rejected by a federal judge in Massachusetts, although the Mexican government reported that it would appeal the resolution in the first instance.

"Why do we insist on this? Because if we don't stop this tremendous flow of weapons into Mexico, how are we going to stop the violence here?" Ebrard questioned. It is estimated that half a million weapons enter the territory every year.
Collaboration with the USA

Meanwhile, Ebrard recalled that Mexico collaborates with the US government to curb fentanyl trafficking and in the fight against drug cartels.

"We also want them to help us by reducing this flow of weapons that does us a lot of damage," he pointed out as the Mexican foreign minister.