Justice Kagan Pens Opinion In Gun Maker Case

In a major win for gun manufacturers — and a sweeping affirmation of Americans’ Second Amendment rights — the U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously struck down Mexico’s lawsuit against American gun makers, delivering a legal opinion that leaves no room for ambiguity.

Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the Court, made it clear: firearms like AR-15s and AK-47s are not the tools of criminals alone — they are legally sold, widely owned, and constitutionally protected in the United States.

Mexico’s lawsuit, originally filed in 2021, attempted to hold U.S. gun manufacturers civilly liable for cartel violence south of the border. The government claimed that firearms companies knowingly facilitated illegal trafficking through “reckless design and marketing practices.” But the Supreme Court wasn’t buying it — not the argument, and certainly not the political theater behind it.

Referencing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), a 2005 law passed to shield gun makers from lawsuits stemming from criminal misuse of their products, Kagan laid down the legal foundation for the Court’s rejection. “An action cannot be brought against a manufacturer if, like Mexico’s, it is founded on a third party’s criminal use of the company’s product,” she wrote.

That conclusion alone would have been enough. But it was Kagan’s plainspoken defense of lawful gun ownership that delivered the knockout blow to gun control advocates. She addressed Mexico’s targeting of so-called “military style” firearms head-on — specifically AR-15s, AK-47s, and .50 caliber rifles — by stating:

“Those products are both widely legal and bought by many ordinary consumers.”

In other words, it’s not just the military or criminal elements who use these guns — it’s millions of everyday Americans. The Court refused to demonize the firearm for the actions of the few.

Mexico’s argument boiled down to this: because cartels like AR-15s, companies that manufacture them must be held accountable. But in a masterclass of legal logic, Kagan dismantled the idea that a manufacturer can be liable for a product’s criminal misuse by third parties — especially when the product in question is lawful, heavily regulated, and constitutionally protected.

This unanimous decision serves as a warning to any foreign or domestic effort seeking to undermine the Second Amendment through the backdoor of civil litigation. It also closes the chapter on a lawsuit that, had it succeeded, would have set a chilling precedent: making manufacturers liable not for defects or negligence, but for how a legal product might be misused by criminals.

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