WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court today issued a unanimous opinion in Smith & Wesson v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos, finding a lawsuit brought by the Mexican government against seven major U.S. gun manufacturers and a gun wholesaler is barred by the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). 

Amy Swearer, a senior legal fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation, praised the decision: 

“A bipartisan Congress passed the PLCAA to protect the Second Amendment from anti-gun activists’ concerted efforts to kneecap the lawful gun industry through frivolous but expensive and time-consuming lawsuits, hoping to browbeat it into ‘voluntary’ submission to their gun control whims. 

“This opinion is a powerful reminder that foreign governments are equally barred from that type of nefarious interference with the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans.  

“If the Mexican government wants someone to blame for its cartel-driven violence woes, it should start by looking inward—not at the lawful American gun industry.” 

Mexico sought to hold these companies civilly liable for billions of dollars of damages allegedly stemming from crimes committed in Mexico, by Mexican drug cartels, who used weapons legally made and sold in the United States by these companies.  

The Heritage Foundation believes the right of the people to keep and bear arms, enshrined in the Constitution’s Second Amendment, is centered not on hunting or sport shooting but on the natural right of self-defense. It is essential to the promises of liberty, ensuring that attempts to reduce our natural rights to mere dead letters may be met with meaningful resistance.