Mexico wants to sue U.S. gun makers

[jpak]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20056210-10391695.html

CBS News has learned that the Mexican Government has retained an American law firm to explore filing civil charges against U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors over the flood of guns crossing the border into Mexico.

Sources say Mexico's frustration with U.S. efforts to stop the flow of weapons has pushed them into this novel approach. The law firm is looking at charges that may include civil RICO. The contract was signed on November 2, 2010 by a representative of Mexico's Attorney General, at their Washington embassy.

<snip>

Christopher Renzulli of New York, who has represented U.S. gun makers for fifteen years, says he believes this would be a difficult case for the Mexican government to win. "The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act would bar that kind of lawsuit from the start. The law, passed in 2005 has resulted in several lawsuits against gun makers being dismissed.

But sources familiar with the case say the law firm retained by Mexico - New York based Reid Collins & Tsai - believes the federal law won't stand in the way of their case.

<more>

but we were told the ATF was doing all the "gun walking"

another fairy tale exposed

yup

[lawodevolution]

1. Sorry but you can't sue them

Now go liberalize you own gun laws.

[jpak]

2. yes they can - too bad

yup

[lawodevolution]

5. Desperate and pathetic

Yall Can't force Mexico's failed gun policy on us through the courts because if it has to it will go up to the supreme court and I have a feeling this will blow up in Mexico and your faces.

Fascist pigs

[jpak]

6. whhaaaaahhh

yup

[lawodevolution]

9. Go ask you mama to burp you

[jpak]

15. "you mama"

too funny

[ProgressiveProfessor]

17. Anyone can indeed sue for anything in US courts

Success is another matter. What tort are they alleging? You are aware of the laws exempting forearms manufacturers from this kind of suit aren't you?

[one-eyed fat man]

34. It's the ATF they can't sue

Sovereign immunity.

[Glassunion]

3. They may have better luck suing the ATF

[jpak]

4. The ATF is not the problem - gun shops, gun shows and straw buyers are

yup

[Smokewagon]

7. The ATF is not the problem

Then they should sue the gun shops, gun shows, and straw buyers.

[lawodevolution]

10. The Mexican government is the problem.

They think more gun control is the answer to the rising crime caused by their previous tough gun control

[aikoaiko]

24. Well, the ATF is part of the gun problem in Mexico.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/03/eveningnews/main20039031.shtml

WASHINGTON - Federal agent John Dodson says what he was asked to do was beyond belief.

He was intentionally letting guns go to Mexico?

"Yes ma'am," Dodson told CBS News. "The agency was."

An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the Phoenix office in 2010, Dodson's job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen.

[gejohnston]

12. nope

My guess is that Mexico is hoping for a out of court settlement because they have a crap case and they know it.

[lawodevolution]

18. yeah, an out of court settlement. Presidente Cabron shuts up, settled.

[spin]

16. Obviously you don't follow the news closely ...

or you are unwilling to admit that the ATF might have allowed straw buyers to "walk" illegal firearms into Mexico after instructing legitimate gun stores to sell the weapons to the straw purchasers.

Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF
Program aimed at stopping the flow of weapons from the US to Mexico may have allegedly had the opposite effect
February 23, 2011


CBSNews)

WASHINGTON - Keeping American weapons from getting into the hands of Mexican gangs is the goal of a program called "Project Gunrunner." But critics say it's doing exactly the opposite. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports on what she found.

***snip***

"Project Gunrunner" deployed new teams of agents to the southwest border. The idea: to stop the flow of weapons from the US to Mexico's drug cartels. But in practice, sources tell CBS News, ATF's actions had the opposite result: they allegedly facilitated the delivery of thousands of guns into criminal hand

***snip***

In late 2009, ATF was alerted to suspicious buys at seven gun shops in the Phoenix area. Suspicious because the buyers paid cash, sometimes brought in paper bags. And they purchased classic "weapons of choice" used by Mexican drug traffickers - semi-automatic versions of military type rifles and pistols.

Sources tell CBS News several gun shops wanted to stop the questionable sales, but ATF encouraged them to continue.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/23/eveningnews/main20035609.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea

You and others who oppose gun ownership should be especially disturbed at the ATF behavior in this incident. It has hurt your cause and will make your mission to eventually ban and confiscate civilian owned firearms more difficult.

I, and many other responsible gun owners, are angry at the ATF management for the innocent lives that were lost because of their reckless leadership. All Democrats need to view this issue as a serious problem that needs to be addressed as ignoring this scandal will cost us votes in the next election.

[ManiacJoe]

37. .

No need to pile on....

[beevul]

14. No thats not what they want.

More recently, Mexico has demanded information from the U.S. on the ATF controversy revealed by CBS News, in which ATF agents allegedly allowed thousands of weapons to cross the border, supposedly in a failed attempt to gain intelligence to take down a major drug cartel. Some Mexican legislators have publicly said ATF agents who crafted and carried out the strategy could be extradited to Mexico and arrested.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20045147-10391695.html

[lawodevolution]

19. and what army are they going to use to "extradite" them?

[PavePusher]

21. The Mexican Army, with S.U.'s connivance... n/t

[lawodevolution]

8. The Mexican government should sue themselves because they are the source of most of the military

Grade weapons in the hands of the gangs and this is well known here in el paso amongst Mexicans.

[gejohnston]

11. It will be a slam dunk

For the defense. I hope the defense starts going through some of Wikileak's dumps. They will find them very interesting and useful. So are they going to sue Guatamula, Israel, China, and South Korea too?


http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110209-mexicos-gun-supply-and-90-percent-myth

http://www.wikileaks.ch/cable/2009/03/09MONTERREY100.html

http://www.factcheck.org/politics/counting_mexicos_guns.html

[DonP]

13. This could be fun, when they get to discovery and the Mexican government is required to open ..

... all of its record on border crime and incidents and prove the chain of possession. How many in the mexican army, national police and officials are involved in the smuggling at the base of the issue?

But I'm not going to hold my breath fro anything ever coming of this, even if all the gun control and Brady management, both of them, have really exciting wet dreams tonight over it.

[beevul]

36. Yup.

Not to mention whatever information that have pertaining to gunwalker.


Those are the things that doom this from the start.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

20. America wants to sue Mexican cartels.

Too bad, so sad.

[dizbukhapeter]

22. It's not America's fault Mexicans can't run their own country

[aikoaiko]

23. This suit will fail. The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act from spurious claims.

Now if they can prove wrong doing by gun manufacturers or distributors, then that would be a different story.

[rl6214]

25. What has been exposed?

There is nothing in this story that shows what guns are coming from where.

Fail on your part.

[Dr_Scholl]

26. If Mexico can sue U.S gun manufacturers

for supposedly letting firearms enter their country, does that mean we can sue Mexico for letting so many illegals and drugs into our country?

Just wondering.

[Francis Marion]

27. End Mexico's War on Guns

US gun companies are just trying to earn a living for their families.

Mexican gun consumers are to blame for driving the illegal gun trade.

Mexico should decriminalize arms possession, and instead tax sales.

[Common Sense Party]

28. Fine. I want us to sue Mexican drug manufacturers and distributors

over the flood of drugs crossing over the border into the U.S.

What was that I learned in Econ 101? Where there is demand, there will be supply?

[Abq_Sarah]

29. Maybe Mexico ought to control their own border

Instead of expecting us to do it while footing the bill.


Oh wait.. That would actually make sense and take away their sense of victimhood.

[NewMoonTherian]

30. Excellent argument for a loser-pays system. n/t

[Euromutt]

31. Who else will they be suing?

Norinco? The manufacturer of those South Korean hand grenades that have been cropping up in the cartels' hands? The parties responsible for exporting coca paste from Peru, Bolivia and, of course, Colombia to Mexico? Why not the cartels themselves?

I don't give them a lot of chance of success. Let's face it, American firearms manufacturers, importers and distributors are already subject to a set of stringent government regulations intended to keep firearms out of criminal hands. If those regulations are proving ineffective (or at least insufficiently effective), is that the fault of the gun manufacturers and distributors, or of the government that's supposed to be enforcing those regulations? Unless you can prove that the manufacturers and distributors have been failing to comply with the provisions of the Gun Control Act of 1968, I don't see how you have a case.

[Katya Mullethov]

33. Balderdash

If they threaten to sue , somebody might give them a pile of money .
If they sue and win , the US will give them a pile of money .
If they sue and lose , the US will give them a pile of money .
Beats a regular job , except for the getting skinned alive part .

[Euromutt]

32. Oh and, "another fairy tale exposed"?

You do realize, I hope, that the Mexican government hasn't even filed suit yet, let alone won the case? If you think the prospective plaintiff's say-so alone is persuasive evidence of something, you must pay a lot of money to people who say you wronged them.

[jeepnstein]

35. Why don't they sue the Cartels?

Oh, that's right, they OWN the Mexican government.

It's the drugs that are the root of the problem. Until we have a rational policy for dealing with that, like maybe making it perfectly legal for a property owner or tenant farmer to raise marijuana under the same type of system we use for tobacco quotas, we'll have a blood bath among smugglers in Mexico and along the border. I don't smoke marijuana but a policy of American Weed for Americans makes perfect sense to me.