By The Vanguard Staff
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – More than 25 district attorneys from throughout the U.S. – including San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin – are encouraging a federal court to green light a lawsuit by the Mexican government that claims U.S. gun makers are culpable for crimes that take place in Mexico.
“We must hold these gun manufacturers accountable for the devastating violence and harm they are inflicting on our communities…(they) send guns to Mexico, where transnational drug cartels use them to inflict violence on both sides of the border. These gun manufacturers are empowering the drug traffickers flooding our streets with fentanyl and methamphetamines,” said Boudin.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts in August last year, arguing U.S. gun manufacturers are avoiding “strict Mexican gun laws” by trafficking of guns to Mexican cartels. 
The brief argues “manufacturers should be liable for designing and marketing weapons knowing they will end up in the hands of Mexican cartels and subsequently funneled back into U.S. cities, along with vast quantities of drugs.
The district attorneys maintain, according to a statement by DA Boudin’s office, that “guns manufactured in the United States and transported to Mexico…are being turned on people in our cities and the brave law enforcement officers who protect them, and they are fueling the drug carnage ravaging this country.”
The district attorneys have charged U.S. cities have also “felt the devastating impact of the U.S. gun manufacturers’ activities in their own communities,” according to the SF DA statement.
“These are the real-life consequences of gun manufacturers producing guns that they know will end up in the hands of cartels—and the reason that the district attorneys support Mexico in its efforts to hold the gun manufacturers accountable,” said Ellen Leonida, a partner at BraunHagey & Borden LLP, who represents the coalition of district attorneys.
“District attorneys across the United States are seeing their communities devastated by the inevitable effects of arming cartels: an increase in homicides, an unprecedented number of overdose deaths, families and neighborhoods torn apart by drugs and gun violence,” Leonida said.
Among the district attorneys, including Boudin, who agreed with the federal brief, are Contra Costa DA Diana Becton, and Los Angeles DA George Gascón.
