CONTACT: 

Rachel Marshall / 415-416-4468 / Rachel.Marshall@sfgov.org

Director of Communications / Policy Advisor / Assistant District Attorney

San Francisco— District Attorney Chesa Boudin and more than 25 district attorneys from across the U.S are urging a federal court to allow the Government of Mexico to proceed with a lawsuit alleging that U.S. gun manufacturers are liable for crimes committed with their weapons across the border.

The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Massachusetts by the Mexican government on August 4, 2021, argues that U.S. gun manufacturers are contravening strict Mexican gun laws by actively facilitating the unlawful trafficking of vast quantities of their guns to Mexican cartels.

“As district attorney, my office has worked tirelessly to get guns off our streets,” said District Attorney Chesa Boudin, “The defendant gun manufacturers 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.  We must hold these gun manufacturers accountable for the devastating violence and harm they are inflicting on our communities.”

The district attorneys assert that US cities have also felt the devastating impact of the U.S. gun manufacturers’ activities in their own communities. The brief argues that the 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 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.”

“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,” said Ellen Leonida, a partner at  BraunHagey & Borden LLP, who represents the coalition of district attorneys, “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.”

A copy of the filed brief is attached to this release.

APPENDIX: LIST OF AMICI—
Diana Becton
District Attorney, Contra Costa County, California

Chesa Boudin
District Attorney, San Francisco County, California

John Choi
County Attorney, Ramsey County (St. Paul), Minnesota

Laura Conover
County Attorney, Pima County (Tucson), Arizona

Steve Descano
Commonwealth’s Attorney, Fairfax County, Virginia

Matt Ellis
District Attorney, Wasco County, Oregon

Ramin Fatehi
Commonwealth’s Attorney, City of Norfolk, Virginia

Kim Foxx
State’s Attorney, Cook County (Chicago), Illinois

José Garza
District Attorney, Travis County (Austin), Texas

George Gascón
District Attorney, Los Angeles County, California
Former District Attorney, City and County of San Francisco, California
Former Chief, San Francisco Police Department, California
Former Chief, Mesa Police Department, Arizona

Sarah F. George
State’s Attorney, Chittenden County (Burlington), Vermont

Deborah Gonzalez
District Attorney, Western Judicial Circuit (Athens), Georgia

Mark Gonzalez
District Attorney, Nueces County (Corpus Christi), Texas

John Hummel
District Attorney, Deschutes County, Oregon

Melinda Katz
District Attorney, Queens County, New York

Lawrence S. Krasner
District Attorney, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Rebecca Like
Acting Prosecuting Attorney, County of Kaua’i, Hawaii

Beth McCann
District Attorney, 2nd Judicial District (Denver), Colorado

Joseph Platania
Commonwealth’s Attorney, City of Charlottesville, Virginia

Marian Ryan
District Attorney, Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Dan Satterberg
Prosecuting Attorney, King County (Seattle), Washington

Eli Savit
Prosecuting Attorney, Washtenaw County (Ann Arbor), Michigan

Mike Schmidt
District Attorney, Multnomah County (Portland), Oregon

David Sullivan
District Attorney, Northwestern District, Massachusetts

Matthew Van Houten
District Attorney, Tompkins County, New York

Todd Williams
District Attorney, Buncombe County (Asheville), North Carolina

###