Why a top official at a top gun control group left to become an agent of Mexico

Former top lawyers at the gun control advocacy organization Brady have formed a new gun policy venture. And they’re registering as foreign agents of the Mexican government as part of it.

The new advocacy group, Global Action on Gun Violence, aims to address cross-border gun trafficking from the U.S., according to filings with the Department of Justice. The group, which has not yet formally launched, intends to represent foreign governments or others rallying against the gun industry in lobbying and litigation. It is led by Jonathan Lowy, the former chief counsel at Brady who directed the organization’s legal arm for years.

Advocates have long shed a spotlight on illicit trafficking of firearms into Mexico — arguing that it fuels drug trafficking. But Lowy’s move still represents a major shift in the world of gun policy advocacy. Lowy has been a key player at Brady, which has helped wage some of the most high-profile legislative fights around gun control but primarily in Washington, D.C., and statehouses. The launch of the new group underscores how the theater for action has expanded globally.

Earlier this month, Global Action on Gun Violence quietly filed paperwork with the DOJ under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, with Lowy and Elizabeth Burke, who was also an attorney at Brady, registering as agents of Mexico.

Brady, for its part, was hesitant to dive into work that would fall under the foreign influence law, its Chief Operating Officer Susan Lavington said. Lavington added that the group would remain “laser focused on America’s gun violence,” and did not plan to collaborate with or provide any funding for Lowy’s group.

In an interview, Lowy emphasized that he departed from the legacy nonprofit “amicably.” He said he views gun control as a means to address issues with cross-border drug trafficking and migration and plans to work with countries or others “affected by U.S. gun industry practices.”

“The guns that are trafficked across the border, is like the venom in the cartel,” he said. “That is the venom that makes them dangerous.”

Gun control advocates have warned that the proliferation of guns in the United States is fueling destabilization in Mexico, as weapons pour into the country illegally via “straw purchasers,” who pass on the weapons to smugglers, said Stephen Hargarten, an emergency physician at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a gun violence researcher. It’s estimated that there are more homicides in Mexico linked to U.S. guns than there are in the United States.

The problem, advocates say, has been exacerbated by a loosening of U.S. export restrictions. Gun manufacturers and interest groups scored a win in 2020 when the Trump administration moved export license oversight from the State Department to the Commerce Department, easing export laws and increasing gun sales and the illegal trafficking of weapons.

With the growing recognition that gun violence is a global health problem, multiple groups have come onto the scene in recent years to take part in highlighting the issue, Hargarten said. Litigation is among the tools, he said.

“To have someone like Jonathan Lowy decide to devote all of his attention to this is, I think, evidence that this is a big deal,” Hargarten said.

Global Action on Gun Violence filed a lawsuit in Arizona against U.S. gun dealers on behalf of Mexico earlier this month. The lawsuit alleges that the companies “choose to sell guns using reckless and unlawful practices, despite the foreseeability – indeed, virtual certainty – that they are thereby helping cause deadly cartel violence across the border.”

Lowy explained that the goal was to go beyond litigation, suggesting that the group would lobby around legislation and regulation of gun companies on behalf of foreign governments or people outside the U.S.

He declined to provide details about the group’s funding or its advisory committee at this point. But according to a filing with the Department of Justice, its board will include Dennis Henigan, another lawyer and Brady alum, and Malcolm Ruby, a lawyer who has worked with Brady on a lawsuit against the firearm manufacturer Smith & Wesson on behalf of victims of a Toronto shooting.

Last year, Lowy and other attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of Mexico against U.S. gun companies, alleging that they facilitate the illicit trafficking of guns into Mexico — Antigua & Barbuda and Belize were among those that filed a brief in support of Mexico’s case. However, earlier this month, a federal judge in Massachusetts dismissed the lawsuit. The government said it intended to appeal the decision.