Up from Mexico Way: A Lawsuit Against U.S. Gun Manufacturers
Article audio sponsored by The John Birch Society

“Sources say Mexico’s frustration with U.S. efforts to stop the flow of weapons has pushed them into this novel approach. The law firm [that has been retained] is looking at charges that may include civil RICO. The contract was signed on November 2, 2010 by a representative of Mexico’s Attorney General, at their Washington embassy.

“On November 5, 2010 President Felipe Calderon expressed his frustration to CBS News correspondent Peter Greenberg: ‘We seized more than 90,000 weapons…. I am talking like 50,000 assault weapons, AR-15 machine guns, more than 8,000 grenades and almost 10 million bullets. Amazing figures and according to all those cases, the ones we are able to track, most of these are American weapons.'”

Frustration with efforts to stop a cross-border flow….

Wow, we wouldn’t know anything about that.

It is true that the United States is teeming with weapons. In fact, the next time I visit my local gun shop, I’ll not only replenish my supply of machine guns and grenades, I intend to update my arsenal of sarin gas and tactical nuclear weapons.

If I seem flippant, at least my nonsense is rendered in jest. But it appears that Calderon doesn’t know any more about firearms than our typical anti-Second Amendment politicians. Either that, or it was some rapid-fire propaganda. Because “machine” guns — that is, fully-automatic weapons — aren’t available in gun stores and neither are grenades. As for an “AR-15 machine gun,” perhaps he was talking about an M-16A2; it is our military’s standard-issue rifle and isn’t available to civies. And if an AR-15 is full-auto, it was illegally converted after purchase.

But if Calderon really is upset about this problem, he might want to talk to Barack Obama, whose ATF was shipping guns into Mexico via operation Gunwalker. Really, though, the Mexicans’ chutzpah knows no bounds. First I’ll mention that drugs and the related violence have been pouring across our border for quite some time now, and the trade is sometimes facilitated by corrupt Mexican law enforcement. Oh, the drug business is driven by American demand, some retort?

Yeah, sort of like the gun trade, huh?

Besides, why are the Mexicans troubling over these firearms, anyway?

Aren’t they just undocumented compression-operated projectile-propulsion instruments?

Worse still, the Mexican government teaches its people that American territory is rightfully part of “Greater Mexico” (and 58 percent of Mexicans now believe this according to one poll) and has actually distributed pamphlets on how to better sneak into our country and evade the authorities while squatting here. So, when Eric “Americans are Cowards” Holder is done pressuring localities into hiring stupid people as police officers, he might want to consider some lawsuits against Mexico over the drugs, illegals, and criminals pouring into our country. And don’t forget to cite the Mexican nationals who’ve murdered and raped our citizens (sometimes after being released by the kind of police Holder would give us).

Then again, it may be a good idea to just avoid the whole lawyer-enriching mess. So how about this deal:   

We go to Mexico and pick up our guns and the Mexicans come here and pick up their illegals?

This, unfortunately, won’t happen, and the aforementioned lawsuits really are no laughing matter. Not only are they used by rapacious, gold-digging governments to try to extract private-sector money not yet seized through taxation, but there is often something even more insidious at work: It is a way that left-wing activists can harm politically incorrect businesses through the courts.

Of course, the lawsuits against the tobacco companies come to mind, but the tactic has also been used against more sympathetic entities. For example, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) were sued by an atheist who didn’t like their religious bent, by groups that didn’t like their prohibition against openly homosexual members, and by a girl who wanted to be a Boy Scout (she finally decided to be the next Rachel Maddow instead). The BSA eventually prevailed in court, but at what expense? Those who file these activist-harassment lawsuits know that, even if their victim prevails, it may be a coffer-draining Pyrrhic victory for the victim. And it harms society, too. After all, how many poor boys were hurt because funds that could have helped them escape the concrete jungle for the country instead went to BSA’s lawyer fees?  

This is why we need the tort reform of a loser-pays law. As it stands now, it’s simply too easy for the avaricious and activist-minded to harass, and attempt to steal from, others through the legal system. Groups with deep pockets and their own teams of lawyers, such as the ACLU and SPLC, can roll the dice with nothing to lose because, at worst, they will intensify a fear of lawsuits that causes others to conform to their agenda. That’s their real goal, anyway, and it is why they need their wings clipped. Honestly, a mugger on the corner is less to be feared.

Speaking of which, as far as the kleptocracy called Mexico goes, where is General Blackjack Pershing when you need him?