No Immunity for the Gun Industry

NYT ^ | 7/28/05

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

At a time when Congress is grappling with critical measures, including military and energy issues, the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, has seen fit to catapult a special interest bill for the gun lobby to the head of the legislative queue. The bill would grant gun manufacturers, distributors and sellers an unreasonable degree of immunity from civil suits by families or communities harmed by gun violence. It would even require that lawsuits already filed be dismissed.

Although the firearms industry argues that it should not be held liable for the criminal acts of those who buy or steal guns, all too often the dealers, distributors or manufacturers contribute to the problem by failing to safeguard their inventories or police their own sales responsibly. The victims of their negligence deserve the right to sue.

Most Americans would surely applaud the legal settlement made in the Washington-area sniper case. The dealer that "lost" the sniper's assault rifle, and some 200 other guns as well, and the rifle's manufacturer paid $2.5 million to two surviving victims and the families of six victims who died. Yet the pending bill, according to legal experts, is so restrictive that if it had been in effect, this lawsuit would have been barred.

A similar bill cleared the House last year, but it was withdrawn in the Senate when the National Rifle Association objected to the attachment of gun-control amendments. Republicans have since gained four Senate seats, and Democrats have grown more fearful of opposing the gun lobby. When this misguided immunity...

[umgud]

Republicans have since gained four Senate seats, and Democrats have grown more fearful of opposing the gun lobby.

This is why I never vote for a dim, even a gun supporting dim.

[Better Dead Than Red]

Gun makers should not be sued for illegal uses of guns committed by criminals any more than auto makers should be sued if a drunk driver kills a family in an accident.

I bet the NYT didn't have a problem about McCain/Feingold getting a vote even though CFR was low priority for most Americans.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

This just in....

Rosie O'Fatta** sues fork makers...

[KC_for_Freedom]

Although the firearms industry argues that it should not be held liable for the criminal acts of those who buy or steal guns, all too often the dealers, distributors or manufacturers contribute to the problem by failing to safeguard their inventories or police their own sales responsibly. The victims of their negligence deserve the right to sue.

So let the victims sue the gun dealers who were negligent. They have no case against the manufacturers and this bill should settle these slap back lawsuits once and for all. Either that of give us "loser pays" tort reform.

[SkyDancer]

Or Craftsam for slamming your thumb with their hammers ....

[bbenton]

How dare the Republicans actually do something that their base would approve of? Seriously, if a dealer sells to some guy who sells to people who commit a crime the justice system should try the middleman with whatever crimes he violated plus the crimes that were committed. Florida has very lose gun control laws but extremely strict violation laws and that works great. If someone commits a crime then throw them in the can. If I went outside and threw paint on my neighbor then would he sue Home Depot?
The rats on the left are following their new play which is "we could never get this approved by the voters so let's use our activist judges to circumvent the entire process." I applaud the Republicans for this. We can't become like most of the rest of the world in regards to self defense. It's our job to defend ourselves and it's the police's job to arrest criminals after they violate some law. Gun's are used like 5 times more to stop a crime than to commit one.

[Billthedrill]

The Times really doesn't get it. The days of "we've identified a class enemy, now anything we do, however contrived, is justified," are over. It's a cheat, it always was a cheat, and the fact that they can demonize its victim doesn't count for a thing outside the shrinking blue zone.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Penthouse...

Carpal tunnel...

Etc....

[RJL]

I wonder how many times a gun used in a crime has been hidden in a New York Times newspaper, and do they think they should be held responsible criminally and civilly for those crimes?

[LAURENTIJ]

Yes, immunity for gun industry.

This is a really good way for the Republican majority to show its prowess.

Heck, a lot of dems are on board for this one even. 9/11 has had one good side effect I think, the utter rejection of the anti-gun agenda.

[billnaz]

The New York Slimes is against this bill. That's a good reason to be for it.

[clee1]

The "Birdcage Liner of Record" strikes again.

When can we open a no-bag-limit season on these whiny liberals?

[KingNo155]

"queue"? Wtf is that? We don't "queue" in America!!!!!!

[xzins]

More than "loser pays" tort reform, although that would be an improvement.

"Loser Pays + Punitive Damage Costs" is the proper way to go.

In the same way the jury declares guilt or innocense and the awarding of actual + punitive damages when the trial lawyers win, they must come out and award actual & punitive damages for the inadequately accused when the defense lawyers win.

Every case they must do one or the other against both the one who brought the suit and the law team that pursued it.

[Hardastarboard]

all too often the dealers, distributors or manufacturers contribute to the problem by failing to safeguard their inventories or police their own sales responsibly.

Ah, yes, don't bother with statistics (which would be something like .00001 % of gun dealers are negligent). Use something that is unquantifiable, and feels good.

Most Americans would surely applaud the legal settlement made in the Washington-area sniper case. The dealer that "lost" the sniper's assault rifle, and some 200 other guns as well, and the rifle's manufacturer

I know a little something about inventory control, and trust me, even with something like guns, this is easy to do, unfortunately.

How about this, NYT? Gun makers will accept unlimited liability for ANY of their actions, when you accept unlimited liability for journalistic malpractice, which you commit on a daily basis. How about unlimited liability for the economic harm your idiot liberal editorial recommendations cause? Of course, I'm sure that's quantifiable with number that can be written using something less than ten thousand zero's.

[from occupied ga]

From the NY Times

I have been accused of having a prejudice against New Yorkers. Well maybe it isn't so much a prejudice against the geographic area as against socialist, jackboot worshiping, freedom hating liberals who happen to cluster more thickly in that area of the country than anywhere else including Kalifornia. 88% of Manhattanites voted for Kerry and a like fraction voted for Hitlery. The percentages in the other oblasts (I think New Yorkers call the boroughs) were similar. This shows that most of the people who live there have a serious dislike of individual freedom and not only don't want it for themselves but are electing representative who will try to ensure that no one else is free either.

I despise the ever more irrelevant "Old Grey Whore" , but it's editorials probably reflect the opinions of most of the voters in NYC.

[KC_for_Freedom]

I have no problem with this.

[Dead Corpse]

The victims of their negligence deserve the right to sue.

Prove the negligence. They can't. Without a sympathetic jury and a liberal judge looking to legislate from the bench, the gun grabbers would have nothing to stand on. Getting cases like this into stare decisis started with a cup of million dollar coffee. It will spread to the auto industry, the alcohol industry, and eventually the sharp pointy stick and heavy rock industries.

Slippery slope is consider a logical fallacy, but objective observation of our legal climate shows incrementalism to be an effective tool for screwing the public with their approval.

[absolootezer0]

this whole thing with barring frivolous lawsuits should've been instituted when that old lady sued mcdonalds because she spilled her coffee in her lap.