GUNSCould International Pressure Ultimately Strengthen U.S. Gun Laws?
American gun politics and policy have sway far beyond our borders. U.S. guns fuel cartel violence in Mexico, find their way to crime scenes in Canada, and are contributing to a rising gun violence epidemic in the Caribbean. Despite this global dimension, the influence hasn’t run in the other direction. A new organization that’s representing Mexico in a lawsuit against American gun manufacturers and dealers hopes to accomplish just that.
American gun politics and policy have sway far beyond our borders. U.S. guns fuel cartel violence in Mexico, find their way to crime scenes in Canada, and are contributing to a rising gun violence epidemic in the Caribbean. Despite this global dimension, the influence hasn’t run in the other direction.
Global Action on Gun Violence hopes to change that. GAGV and its founder, longtime gun reform advocate and attorney Jonathan Lowy, want to use international pressure as a lever to change U.S. gun policies. They’re doing so through courts — both inside and outside the U.S.— and through human rights proceedings in international bodies.
GAGV is representing the government of Mexico in two lawsuits against U.S. gun manufacturers and gun dealers, handling a suit against gunmaker Smith & Wesson in Canadian court, and bringing a landmark case before the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, which argues that U.S. gun policy violates its human rights obligations.
I spoke with Lowy, who spent more than two decades battling the gun industry and advocating for policy reform at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence before founding GAGV in 2022, to talk through his strategy and how he believes it could affect America’s gun violence epidemic.
Our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Chip: How did Global Action on Gun Violence come about?
Jonathan Lowy: Ultimately, I was frustrated by the lack of progress and the limits of boldness and imagination in U.S. gun violence prevention efforts. The violence in the U.S. was getting worse. The Protection of Lawful Commerce and Arms Act was enacted, which made it much more difficult to sue the gun industry, which was one way that we made progress when Congress wasn’t taking action. And the Supreme Court was making Second Amendment law much more restrictive.
And then I began working with the government of Mexico, which decided to bring a lawsuit against major gun manufacturers. It’s the first country in the world to bring a lawsuit against the gun industry. It was an example of the sort of bold action that you can get working outside of the U.S.
