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Judge rules Newtown families' lawsuit against gun maker can go forward
FoxNews ^ | 4/15/16 | AP???

Posted on 04/15/2016 5:52:01 AM PDT by blueyon

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To: circlecity

This has always fascinated me with the media hysteria over the Ar15. Around 60 years ago, people could by a semi-automatic rifle from a catalog...and we didn’t have school shootings like we do today.

Soooo...perhaps something other than the ‘gun’ is the cause of all this violence.


21 posted on 04/15/2016 6:32:30 AM PDT by lacrew
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To: lacrew

In that case we follow what Jefferson said, “you won’t need the 2nd amendment until they try to take it away from you”


22 posted on 04/15/2016 6:34:46 AM PDT by stockpirate (Rush is a low information talk show host concerning Ted sCruz and Marco foamboy Rubio.)
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To: blueyon

Then can I sue Planned Parenthood for the illegal alien invasion?

The reason given for the borders being wide open is that Americans aren’t having enough babies, and Planned Parenthood is the reason there are 30,000,000 missing Americans.


23 posted on 04/15/2016 6:35:13 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it." --Samuel Clemens)
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To: circlecity

More like “inferior” court. So I suppose I can sue Fender for making my guitar capable of playing too loud through a Fender amp too loudly affecting my hearing? Chain saw manufacturers, etc. Since there is no limit on crazy, some WPS would be able to sue just about anyone for anything. Oh, they already can. Lawyers love it ‘cause-——cha ching! Yeah, this’ll be expensive and time consuming as it’s raised to higher levels of “courtdom”. I guess when you have nothing better to do with your time than laze around on the couch, you can do this crap. A lot of other people have JOBS to do. Thanks a lot your judgeship.


24 posted on 04/15/2016 6:41:04 AM PDT by rktman (Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?!)
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To: blueyon

Big pharma will be next as their drugs kill hundreds of thousands a year, oh wait, their lobbyists earn them a 77,000% return on investment for every lobbying dollar spent... never mind.


25 posted on 04/15/2016 6:49:36 AM PDT by WV Mountain Mama (The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits. Einstein)
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To: blueyon

Communists Judge, is so rotten to the core he should be impeached.


26 posted on 04/15/2016 7:03:39 AM PDT by Logical me
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To: blueyon

Judge Barbara Bellis can’t read legaleze.

This is the ONE tick that gave Bernie Sanders a “D” instead of an “F” from the NRA.


27 posted on 04/15/2016 7:09:03 AM PDT by Blue Collar Christian (Ready for Teddy, Cruz that is.)
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To: blueyon

I don’t know what everyone is complaining about, this is a very logical decision. After all:

Car manufacturers cause drunk driving accidents.

Utensil manufacturers cause people to be fat (cue Rosey O’Donnell - no, on 2nd thought, DON’T).

Computer manufacturers cause hacking, identity theft, etc. (not to mention creating the urge to buy private servers and put them in your bathroom to handle highly classified information).

Cannoli manufacturers cause mafia hits in New Jersey.

Etc., etc., etc. All logical arguments (if you’re dain-bramaged, that is).


28 posted on 04/15/2016 7:28:59 AM PDT by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt)
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To: blueyon

A clear violation of the law. The ruling should be appealed and most likely will be overturned.


29 posted on 04/15/2016 7:44:24 AM PDT by taxcontrol ( The GOPe treats the conservative base like slaves by taking their votes and refuses to pay)
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To: blueyon

Hillary tweeted that gun manufacturers should be held liable for what people do with their guns. An enterprising young lady asked her it a technology company should be held liable if someone jeopardized national security by using one of their machines as an email server. Priceless.


30 posted on 04/15/2016 7:45:28 AM PDT by Dilbert56
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To: Jack Hammer

Not if Hillary is elected!!!


31 posted on 04/15/2016 8:41:56 AM PDT by ontap
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Proving intent is crucial to winning a judgement.

Proving the company manufactured those particular firearms with the intent to have a nut-ball kill children is not going to happen.

But now that these families lost their children to a nu-ball they can now have their life savings cleaned out by lawyers assuring them of a victory.


32 posted on 04/15/2016 9:01:02 AM PDT by USCG SimTech (Honored to serve since '71)
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To: blueyon

The Hard Truth About Suing Gun Manufacturers

Andrew R. KlosterJennifer Weinberg

March 2, 2016

Could you imagine being a business owner; selling a legal, functional product; and being sued every time an individual who buys your product uses it to commit a crime?

Should a rope manufacturer be liable when someone is hanged by that rope? Should a knife manufacturer be liable when someone is stabbed? Could a restaurant be sued when someone eats its perfectly safe food but dies of a heart attack or diabetic shock?

In each of these cases, the product being sold is legal, and it works. And in each of these cases, we don’t think the manufacturer should be held responsible for damage that comes from using a safe product as advertised. But some activists think gun manufacturers and retailers should be held to a different standard.

Families of the Sandy Hook massacre filed a lawsuit in response to the 2012 shooting, attempting to hold gun manufacturers liable for the deaths of school children and faculty. That shooting involved Adam Lanza using a rifle his mother, Mary Lanza, had legally purchased. The lawsuit charges the gun manufacturer, gun distributor and local gun shop that sold Mary Lanza her rifle with “unreasonable and egregious risk of physical injury to others” and seeks damages.

Now, Judge Barbara Bellis of the Connecticut Superior Court must decide if federal law blocks the lawsuit. Back in 2005, Congress passed, and President George W. Bush signed into law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which preempts—or blocks—state or federal lawsuits against gun manufacturers except in limited cases, such as where the guns were defective, or where the manufacturer was involved in criminal conduct.

This federal law makes sense and simply reiterates what is already well-established products liability law. For a manufacturer or retailer to be liable in tort for the harm caused by a product, the plaintiff must establish that the manufacturer or retailer did something that actually caused the harm.

This could be the case if the product was manufactured poorly and contained a defect that caused it to malfunction, or if the manufacturer encouraged people to misuse the product in a way that caused the harm, or if the manufacturer or retailer sold the product to someone he knew was prohibited from buying the product.

But when a product is legal, operates as advertised, and is sold in a legal manner (i.e., the manufacturer or retailer complied with all applicable regulations and had no reason to believe that the purchaser was legally prohibited from buying the product), there is a lack of any causal nexus between any actions taken by the manufacturer or retailer and the results of any misuse of the product, and neither the manufacturer nor the retailer should not be held liable for the product’s misuse.

If allowed to proceed, lawsuits such as the one in Connecticut could lead to all sorts of other outlandish claims being asserted against producers merely for selling their legal products, even though they rarely have any control over who buys their products or how people use them.

Could the maker of salted peanuts be sued if someone intentionally sneaks peanuts into the lunch of someone else who has a known allergy, and who dies as a result? The situations are analogous, and legally, there’s no difference.

As Professor Timothy D. Lytton of New York Law School describes, while gun control advocates have tried, and failed, for decades to impose liability on gun manufacturers and retailers for crime-related injuries, some courts have begun to open the door to these claims. According to Lytton, there is indeed a concerted strategy by trial lawyers to file more lawsuits against gun industry firms. He says, “[B]y suing sellers and manufacturers, who have deeper pockets than their assailant’s victims[,] [victims] seek to improve their chances of receiving compensation. Victims also view successful tort claims as a way to promote safer firearm designs, to deter future sales to criminals, and to place part of the blame for gun violence on the industry.”

The tactics of the plaintiffs’ bar against the gun industry are hiding in plain sight. In the Connecticut complaint, the plaintiffs’ lawyers refer to guns as a “weapon of war.” They argue that the “[d]efendants chose to sell a military weapon to the civilian market, ignoring the unreasonable and demonstrated risk that its assaultive capabilities would be used against innocent civilians.”

This is not an argument supporting liability per se. Rather, it’s an argument for banning guns in their entirety for any non-military use. Even if the policy were constitutional (which it isn’t), that pitch should be made to legislatures, not to courts.

This is not to undermine the seriousness of the issue or the horror that ensued on December 12, 2012.

Gun violence, like all violence, is no laughing matter, and to those who commit despicable atrocities, justice should always be served. But it is wrong to falsely penalize manufacturers for producing a functional product that was lawful for them to sell.

The Second Amendment clearly states that individuals have a right to protect themselves with firearms, and this right might also extend to gun manufacturers. To allow for tort liability here would hinder the exercise of this constitutional right. The emphasis should be on vigorously enforcing existing gun laws, both state and federal, to prevent atrocities like Sandy Hook from happening—not punishing those companies that follow the law.
Pages

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-hard-truth-about-suing-gun-manufacturers-15378


33 posted on 04/15/2016 4:18:59 PM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: Jack Hammer

There are more lawyers in America than in any other country. there are more lawyers in America than Doctors. there are more lawyers than soldiers. There are more lawyers in America than firemen.


34 posted on 04/16/2016 2:50:34 AM PDT by RC one
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