WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (UPI) — Families of victims of mass shootings are being blocked from suing gun makers because of a 2005 federal law heavily pushed by the gun industry, attorneys say.
Prospective lawsuits by parents of children killed in the Dec. 14, 2012, Newtown, Conn., school massacre want to hold gun manufacturers accountable and force them to adopt stricter safety standards, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act bans lawsuits against gun dealers and manufacturers “for the harm caused by those who criminally or unlawfully misuse firearm products.”
The law was passed under intense pressure from the National Rifle Association amid a number of lawsuits by city governments that accused the gun industry of crating a “public nuisance” by encouraging the proliferation of weapons.
Pro-gun lobbyists said if the suits were successful they would destroy the industry and endanger Americans’ right to bear arms.
The law “makes no logical sense,” said Veronique Pozner, the mother of one of the children killed in Newtown. “If their wallets were threatened, they would have a greater interest in making firearms safer.”
“It is absolutely outrageous that the gun industry is not accountable when virtually every other industry in this country is accountable,” said Marc Bern, an attorney who represents family members of victims of a July 20, 2012, Aurora, Colo., theater shooting.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., has introduced legislation to roll back portions of the law to make lawsuits against the industry easier to file.
Lawrence G. Keane, an attorney who lobbied for passage of the law, says that’s not going to happen. Allowing such a lawsuit, he says, “amounts to suing Ford for drunk-driving accidents.”
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
People – you’re missing the whole point! Guns were created to kill – correct? They were not created to scare, they were created to kill!
I never said one word against guns or gun owners, yet you all flip your damn wigs because I pointed out the black and white truth!
They are designed to kill! Why are you all so upset? Does it make you feel icky?
I don’t care that people don’t need guns to kill! Of course they don’t have a motive! They’re inanimate objects! That’s what I SAID!
But they are meant to kill! Own it!
A. . . No. Guns are created to launch a “stone” some distance at an enhanced accuracy. It all depends on what the “thrower” is aiming at.
fear is a powerful thing, people attack with a passion at that which scares them the most. It’s ok stupid and happy, we will protect you.
“it’s disingenuous to use deflections like “guns don’t kill”. It’s also an insult to our intelligence to attempt to soften their sole purpose with romantic notions of hunting with daddy.”
It’s an insult to me that you think without a gun, a person cannot kill. I could create mass mayhem from a number of different schemes just off the top of my head.
None of them requiring the use of a gun. And therein lies the operative term.
Use.
As LVS properly pointed out, a gun is just a mass of material shaped into some sort of shape, combined with chemicals and other materials made into shapes.
The idea however is not that someone uses a gun, but decides it is in their right to take the life of another person. They know right and wrong, unless they are in such a diagnosis that should not let them out in the world without constant monitoring.
It is the person, not some device, where we should be focusing our attention and energies.
Again, deflection. A person can use a baseball bat to hit a home run, or to beat someone to death. A person can use a knife to cut celery into small pieces or to stab someone to death.
But a person can only do ONE THING with a gun.
Hence, a gun was meant to kill. Why is this so difficult to grasp?
“But a person can only do ONE THING with a gun.
Hence, a gun was meant to kill. Why is this so difficult to grasp?”
Really I use mine all the time to punch holes in paper, or in bowling pins and sometimes to knock over steel targets (sorry I don’t shoot clay disks, no my thing).
Can’t take credit for this but very thought provoking. Reading the Chicago trib. Its on Jesse Jackson on gang shootings etc. in Chicago. He wants Obama to bring in a federal police force to help, isn’t that a police state. Response to article was, , why did it take Oenema to have 20 white kid shot to act like stink on sht,all over gun control. Even though chi had 500 murders last year. Oenema is better than Keep the zipper open Clinton and his little dog too Hillary on getting votes. Grand Oenema we shake the dew off the Lilly for you.
Can I sue the manufacturer of the car that the drunk used to kill my brother? Another psycho kills with a gun. Only a person that does not know how to problem solve would direct their focus on the gun.
Take gun away and we will lose more than guns. T here are millions of jobs that would not be around then. Come on guns cant fire themselves. People kill people no matter how you look at it.
Guns only have one purpose. To kill. Whether it’s game or people, that is the only reason they exist.
Once the instrument has been used for the purpose it was designed for, it’s disingenuous to use deflections like “guns don’t kill”. It’s also an insult to our intelligence to attempt to soften their sole purpose with romantic notions of hunting with daddy.
Guns are meant to kill.
All the other issues, such as registration and background checks are mere peripheral nonsense. Whether or not you love guns or hate them, the truth is the truth.
Guns are meant to kill.
Saying really ridiculous things like “maybe we should ban baseball bats” is foolish. Baseball bats were created to play a game.
Guns are meant to kill.
@sicka-I said this to happy guy but here it is again. A gun is a piece of metal and plastic. It has no motive, period. A gun is not responsible for how it is used it is just a tool. I disagree with you when you say it is made to kill. It is made for sports (not all of which kill), it is made for protection (not necessarily to kill). A gun can lay in a drawer or closet for years and years and will never hurt a thing until a “responsible” person picks it up and fires it. A gun is a object plain and simple. If you want to assign responsibility for the killings at the school blame the school for not having enough security or protection at the school to prevent it. We have security in our school, at airports, in government buildings and most everywhere else you want to look, why not in a grade school where children are. I is a dangerous world we live in and we must protect against it.
Haven’t you heard the saying “God created man, Sam Colt made them equal? There are other things out there that were originally made for war that nobody is crying about, knives, swords. If you count things that are made for the military how about maps, GPS, lasers, jeeps, bullet proof vests among others. My point is if a dog attacks you and you have a gun, you protect yourself, if you are hunting and see a deer you shoot it. Sure maybe somethings are made for killing but that doesn’t make it bad. The bible says for everything there is a season, to live or to die. The bible also says in the old testiment (I know some people say thats not for today) an eye for an eye. I was carrying once and I walked in on an armed robbery and I was able to stop it. The handgun I used was used for good, the one the robber was using was for bad. It’s all in the heart of the person carrying it.
@maybe-I bet happy guy and sickastupd would be real glad to see you if it was them being robbed ot threatened.
maybe…are you Todd Blodgett? You sure sound just like him with all your stories. You seem to have one for every topic blogged here.
Nope, wrong guess but I have been around.
From April to October hundreds of people or more shoot guns every week in Cerro Gordo County and never kill a thing. My husband shoots his guns almost daily
during that time. There are semi-autos made for sport shooting as in trap and skeet and sporting clays. Some people have a special gun for each sport. My husband probably shoots 5M rounds at targets every year. It’s not a cheap hobby!
People also started out how ever they were put on this earth to kill. When we were not growing and just killing we had no bacterial problems, therefore no diseases that were man made. Guns were developed to kill just like some narcotics. Some people I haved helped in an institution setting look at, a pool as a way to kill, their hands of feet, a pillow, a knife , a match or lighter. Also 75percent of gun type killing in the USA are gang related. It makes sense that guns are made to kill,protect and a lot of people still bring food to the table. The place to correct a lot of the problem is getting people into socializing with each other.
To all people who agree that the manufactoring company should be held for the way a CRIMINAL uses and ILLEAGALLY obtained firearm…..remember there is a flipside to this coin…..whats good for the goose would then become good for the gander and CRIMINALS would start sueing any cop, agent or any other form that useed a firearm against them and judges would be left powerless to tell them no. LAW ABIDING firearm owners dont go shooting up schools or post offices or anything of the sort. More guns laws will stop criminals from uses them about as much as the laws against B and E, auto theft, murder, rape, underage smoking/drinking are stopping those things from happening now! Use your heads folks, instead of trying to make/pass new laws spend a little more time getting officers and judges to enforce the ones that are in place now. I see it online and in the news all the times how some one gets caught with illeagal firearms and walks with a little time on paper and a fine, its not teaching or making them think twice. Start locking them up and making them think.
Just Sayin
Why would anyone think the gun is responsible for the actions of people? The gun manufacturers certainly never sold the guns with the intent of killing someone. Just more liberal B.S.
Guns don’t kill people, people do. “If there was ever an overused, oversimplifying shiny object in a debate, it’s this gem. The implication of course is that in the hands of the average, benevolent gun owner, guns are completely harmless. Which would be true, if it weren’t for the fact that gun accidents still happen. Small children still kill each other while playing with mommy or daddy’s gun. Of course guns kill people. So does cancer, AIDS, or a heart attack. Guns kill. To deny that is to deny their very reason for existence.
I get what pro-gun folks mean when they use this axiom. It’s a way of sticking up for those law-abiding citizens who want to own a gun as part of their protection, or for whatever reason. We can have that discussion, and we can even have a discussion as to what kinds of guns should be okay for people to own “just ‘cuz.” But until we grow up and stop pretending that guns are anything but tools of homicide, regardless of who owns them, we will get nothing done on the subject.
Yes, we can all agree that until a gun rests in a person’s hand and they point that gun at someone and pull the trigger, that gun has done no harm to anyone. That’s not really the point though. In this country we treat things that are fun but still dangerous with a lot of caution. Roller-coasters can’t just be built in your backyard without a lot of money for permits and insurance. Why we can’t have the same level of insurance required for an assault rifle that we do for a roller coaster is a question I simply can’t answer.”
@happy guy-I never said guns don’t kill people. I said guns are not responsible and they are not. It is the PERSON who pulled the trigger that is responsible. And, I will take exception to some of your comments. Without knowing the real numbers I would say that 99.99% of the guns sold to private citizens in the U.S. are never used to commit a crime. You are trying to make it look like all guns are used to kill people and that is just not true. If they want to sue someone let them sue the school system for not providing enough protection for the children. That was their responsibility.
LVS there is no difference in “Guns don’t kill people, people do” and “guns are not responsible”. “It is the PERSON who pulled the trigger that is responsible.” That is exactly the same thing.
I am sure 90% or more of the guns in the US are not used for crimes. I never said most guns were or will be used illegally. You are reading something into my post that isn’t there.
@happy guy-OK, did I misunderstand your comments? “Until we grow up and stop pretending that guns are anything except tools of homicide regardless of who owns them”. Did I misunderstand here? Exactly what does that mean? A lot of hunters, Trap shooters, rifle team shooters and just plain private citizens would sure disagree with you on that point don’t you think?
“It is absolutely outrageous that the gun industry is not accountable when virtually every other industry in this country is accountable,” said Marc Bern, an attorney who represents family members of victims of a July 20, 2012, Aurora, Colo., theater shooting.”
I’ve never heard of Budweiser being sued for a wrongful death, nor Ford, Chrysler, or Chevrolet.
You’re kidding, right? Auto makers, breweries, product manufacturers of all kinds are sued – successfully – all the time!
I don’t recall ever hearing of a lawsuit where the family of someone killed by a drunk driver suing budweiser or any other alcohol manufacturer. The only lawsuits I have heard of is people suing cigarette manufacturers.
They have been. Usually they’re the last on the list once the auto, bar or homeowner’s insurance is sued.
And for what reason, $$$$, faulty products, or misuse.
Marc Bern, an attorney, do you suppose that he sees big bucks with this kind of thinking… Let’s sue everybody, the gun powder makers, the lead miners, the brass smelters, hell, lets even sue the people that own the land these things come from…$$$$$
When you buy a new gun, it comes with an owners manual. In that manual, among other information, is the gun makers suggestion for the safe operation of that gun. How could gun makers adopt stricter safety standards, and make people do them. Why should they be responsible for the accidental, or misuse of their product. That could be done with most everything that we use in our daily lives. Whatever happened to personal responsibility. This country is just sue happy.