As the Supreme Court prepares to hear Mexico’s lawsuit against U.S. gun manufacturers on March 4, the battle over who is responsible for cartel violence is intensifying. Gun-control advocates, Mexico’s government and even California’s attorney general are siding with Mexico, arguing that American firearms are the cause of the bloodshed. Meanwhile, pro-Second Amendment voices, including the NRA, have countered this claim with hard facts, exposing the deeper realities of cartel armament and corruption.
Some of Mexico City’s ire stems from the Trump administration’s move to designate several cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.” But rather than fix the problem, politicians and their U.S. supporters want to blame the legal gun industry north of the border.
Mexico’s argument rests on the idea that U.S. gun manufacturers negligently supply firearms to cartels, making them complicit in the violence. But this claim is a smokescreen—an attempt to shift the blame away from Mexico’s rampant corruption, its own military’s suspected role in arming cartels and the Mexican government’s inability to curb the influence of these criminal organizations.
Where Do Cartels Really Get Their Guns?
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum insists that the U.S. is responsible for the so-called “iron river” of guns flowing south, a term used to describe the firearms entering Mexico from the U.S. Yet evidence suggests otherwise. While some firearms are indeed trafficked from the U.S., the bulk of cartel weaponry comes from within Mexico itself or through global black markets.
Lee Oughton, a Mexico-based security and intelligence expert, stressed that the majority of guns on Mexican soil are “illegally manufactured” or “found their way from other parts of Latin America, Eastern Europe, Russia and China. For me, it’s an impossibility and maybe a bit of political wrangling to lay the blame at the USA’s doorstep,” he said.
Moreover, Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies points to evidence that corrupt Mexican military officials routinely sell military-grade weapons to cartels. These are not American civilian-market firearms, but are belt-fed machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars and even land mines.
Additionally, a 2022 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report highlights that guns used by cartels often come from Central and South America, where old military stockpiles are looted and resold. The report found that, in four Central American nations alone, 60% of recovered weapons originated from countries like Russia, China, Brazil and former Soviet states.
The Lawsuit is a Political Stunt
Mexico’s $10 billion lawsuit against American gun manufacturers is not about justice—it’s about politics. Instead of confronting its systemic corruption, Mexico is scapegoating American gun companies to distract from its failures.
If Mexico were serious about stopping cartel violence, it would clean up its military, eliminate the corrupt officials arming these criminal organizations and allow full transparency in firearms tracing. But that isn’t happening. Instead, Mexico controls the flow of trace data, selectively submitting only firearms suspected of coming from the U.S. while omitting the vast majority of cartel arsenals stocked with military-grade weapons from other sources.
Even if the lawsuit succeeds in forcing U.S. manufacturers to impose more restrictions, it would do nothing to stop cartels from acquiring weapons. These groups operate with billions in drug profits and will continue to source arms from corrupt military officials, international arms dealers and the global black market.
Why the Second Amendment Matters
The anti-gun activists and Mexico’s government are attempting to use this lawsuit as a steppingstone to stricter gun control in the U.S. If Mexico can hold American gun manufacturers liable for crimes committed by cartels, what’s stopping anti-gun politicians from using the same logic to curb the rights of law-abiding American gun owners?
The Second Amendment is essential to American freedom. It safeguards law-abiding citizens’ right to self-defense and restrains the government from encroaching upon their ability to own firearms.
In addition to being uninformed, the idea that reducing the rights of Americans will somehow stop Mexican cartels from acquiring guns is nonsensical and unconstitutional.
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