Montana AG to Newsmax: Mexico Trying to Bankrupt American Arms Makers

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told Newsmax on Tuesday that the Mexican government is trying to bankrupt American firearms manufacturers by suing them over the country's problem with gun violence.

Mexico filed a $10 billion lawsuit against U.S. gun makers in February, accusing them of aiding cross-border gun trafficking that the government claims has contributed to increased violent crime. In addition to billions in damages, the suit is seeking a court order to force the companies named in the complaint – Smith & Wesson, Colt, Glock, Beretta, and Ruger, among others – to change the way they do business.

"This is stunning," Knudsen said during an appearance on Newsmax's "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE." "The fact that the First Circuit Court of Appeals allowed this case to move forward; the district court rightly threw it out. This is clearly within the PLCAA, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. But also … this is a foreign country trying to come into our court system and bankrupt American manufacturers. Highly inappropriate and just absolutely bizarre. The First Circuit blew the call here."

The attorney general was referring to the Boston-based First Circuit Court of Appeals' decision earlier this year to revive Mexico's 2021 lawsuit by overturning a lower court's decision that dismissed the case on the grounds that the PLCAA barred Mexico from suing. The gun makers appealed to the Supreme Court in April.

Knudsen pointed to Mexico's "rampant corruption" and "rampant lawlessness," as well as some of "the most stringent gun control laws" in the world.

"Mexico has made private firearm ownership basically impossible," he said. "Well, if gun control is the panacea, then they should have no crime in that country. But here they are, having just terrible problems there, and they want to sue our manufacturers in America. Just out of control."

Additionally, he said that there is "some data out there that showed a lot of these guns that Mexico is now claiming in this lawsuit came from Operation Fast and Furious, from our own Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms under the Obama administration."

The important thing, Knudsen stressed, "is that we have got tort protection for these companies."

"If you are manufacturing a product in this country that does what it is supposed to do, under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, you have liability protection," he said. "I mean, I have an AR-15 that sits in the corner of my house and guess what? It didn't jump out and go out and shoot anybody by itself. That firearm functions the way it's supposed to. That's the whole point of this law. These companies are immune."

The Montana official also suggested that Democrats and liberals were to blame for Mexico's legal action because they don't agree with immunity for the gun companies.

"The Democrats and the libs can't stand that," Knudsen said. "So what have they done? They've co-opted a foreign country to try to bankrupt these companies."

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