We have a victory for gun sense! It's complicated, but stay with me.

[AndyS]

We have finally found a chink in the gun industry's armor. Hang with me while I wade through the details.

The PLCAA (Protection of Legal Commerce in Arms Act) was signed into law in 2005. It was the ILA's (the legal arm of the NRA) answer to a a number of cities bringing public nuisance* law suits against gun makers for their failure to control the flow of guns into their populations. The law effectively shields the gun makers from any responsibility for the sales, distribution and use or misuse of their product. No other product has such widespread protection from responsibility for their product. NONE.

In 2014 the families of Sandy Hook children brought suit against Remington Arms, the manufacturer of the gun used by Alan Lanza to murder 20 children and 6 caregivers for the sale of that weapon. It was immediately dismissed under the PLCAA.

Their attorneys appealed on different grounds, again it was dismissed. Finally the attorney's found s clause in the Connecticut constitution that protects against false and damaging advertising and filed yet again under that statute. They sued claiming that the rifle was marketed to vulnerable young men as a bolster to masculinity. It was appealed all the way to the State Supreme Court where it was ruled a viable suit with standing.

Plaintiffs asked for discovery to include all internal and external documents and communications regarding marketing. Remington responded with 6000 pages of junk which the plaintiffs appealed. REMINGTON RESPONDED WITH AN OFFER OF $33 MILLION TO MAKE IT GO AWAY! There must be some really nasty shit in those documents, doncha' think?

Since their success in bringing the suit the victims of the San Diego Synagogue shooting have brought suit on the same grounds and the state of New York has re-written their public nuisance laws to include guns and gun dealers specifically making it possible to reach across state lines to hold gun dealers accountable (74% of recovered crime guns come from outside the state).

Aside from that the Remington offer, accepted or not, will make banks and insurance companies rethink the gun industry as a client.

What this means is WE WON! No matter what happens next is secondary. The gun industry is NO LONGER BULLET PROOF.


* A public nuisance is any action that interferes with the rights and well being of a society or a group within society. Think about a cigarette store next to a high school or a topless bar near a church.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Yes, it is complicated, but very well laid out and comprehensible.

Yay for the families of Sandy Hook!

[hermetic]

2. Excellent!

Finally.

[erronis]

3. I truly hope we have started chinking away at the gun-runners and their dollars.

[AndyS]

4. Gun running, aka gun trafficking

is a subset of the gun problem as a whole. Loosely speaking gun trafficking is the illicit transport of large quantities of guns from a lightly regulated area to a more tightly controlled one. In a more practical sense it comes down to situations like Chicago in which 60% of crime guns recovered come from outside the state, namely Illinois and Indiana with just 2 stores responsible for 11%.

It seems to me that if Chuck's Gun Store would decline sales to people with Chicago Driver's licenses it might make a difference??

[erronis]

6. I mean a much bigger spectrum including legit gun dealers, gun shows, and gun transfers.

They're all now involved in trading/selling weapons that are primarily used to kill people.

I live in a hunting state. The hunters have enough long rifles to bag a deer or moose or bear, etc. They really don't need the new breed of killing machines.

And perhaps that is one of the problems. A well-maintained rifle will last through generations. No profits for the gun runners.

[Dial H For Hero]

7. I plan on thinning out roughly 75% of my gun collection along with the associated accessories

(magazines, ammunition, etc.) in the near future. Most of these will be handguns and “assault weapons”. This will involve putting them up for bid at a local auction house. Likely around 3 dozen or so firearms.

Out of curiosity, are you proposing anything which would affect such a sale?

[erronis]

8. I don't have any way to affect any sale of any weapon. However I think government buy-back

programs are a good avenue.

Of course the gun manufacturers will continue to pump their weaponry out there and may use the "buy-back" as an incentive.

"You can buy your AR-15 now, use it a few times, and then get your money back through the (evil) gov't."

[Iggo]

5. If it costs less to kill children, they're going to choose killing children.