UPDATE 1-Gun makers urge US Supreme Court to hear appeal in Mexico's lawsuit

U.S. gun manufacturers on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their challenge to Mexico's $10 billion lawsuit seeking to hold them responsible for facilitating the trafficking of firearms to violent drug cartels across the U.S.-Mexico border. Eight companies including Smith & Wesson Brands and Sturm, Ruger & Co in a petition argued that a lower court wrongly concluded the case qualified for an exception to a U.S. law that grants the firearms industry broad protection from lawsuits over the misuse of their products. The 1st Circuit did so after finding that Mexico had plausibly alleged the business practices of the seven gun makers and one distributor it had sued aided and abetted the illegal trafficking of guns to Mexico.