People who are not attorneys need to understand that the Supreme Court will do everything possible not to hear a case on procedural grounds. They are absolutely not ruling on the merits of the case here. All that is going on is that the Supremes have said that the case can go forward in the Connecticut Supreme Court. The plaintiffs in this case still have to prove causation, which is going to be very difficult to impossible since Remington sold a legal product that operated exactly as it was intended to do so. Remington has an extraordinarily strong case that it is not lisble, because they cannot be held responsible for the criminal actions of someone who was not even their customer.
If Remington somehow loses this case in Connecticut, they have an excellent basis for appealing it. The logical consequence of such a ruling would be that every automotive company is responsible for the injuries and deaths caused by drunk drivers, pool makers are responsible for drownings, etc. That is manifestly absurd, legally incoherent, would destroy the economy in about 5 minutes - and the federal courts know this.
Again, this decision was purely a procedural one, pay no attention to it.
The problem here isn’t that the case against Remington might be won. The problem is that it’s being allowed to go forward. By allowing this case to proceed it opens the door for every person with an axe to grind to sue firearms manufacturers thus placing an unsurvivable financial burden on them. Simply allowing a case like this to proceed is VERY MUCH likely to destroy the firearms industry in the US. Once that is accomplished all congress has to do is enact an import ban on firearms and POOF, the second Amendment has been nullified.
I sure hope you’re right. But I am not hopeful. And I think we the people need to buy all the guns and ammo we can, while we still can.
Good post. Thanks. Not being a lawyer, I suspected something similar..
I’m hoping they did this with the mindset of, “The PLCAA protects Remmington. Away with this crap. The lower courts need to learn to read the law.”