By Jon Dougherty
We have tons of empathy for any parent who loses a child, particularly a very young child and, more specifically, to a crazed person who comes to their elementary school and kills them.
So we understand that the parents whose children were killed by a mentally disturbed Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook, Conn., in 2012 want to blame something, someone, for their losses.
But surviving families have singled out the gun manufacturer to blame, and honestly, now it all just looks political because the company — Bushmaster Firearms — is the least responsible for those 26 deaths.
Nine Sandy Hook families have filed suit against the gunmaker, and after getting a favorable ruling from the Connecticut Supreme Court, the suit will now move forward and, possibly, could land at the U.S. Supreme Court.
On the surface, the suit should not have gone forward. That’s because a 2006 federal law — the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) — should have prevented it. The law protects gun manufacturers from being sued out of existence after being held civilly liable for incidents involving their guns.
But the state supreme court ruled plaintiffs’ suit can proceed under Connecticut’s unfair trade practices law. Plaintiffs’ lawyers argued that Bushmaster’s advertising essentially encouraged customers and others to use their XM15 rifles — the type used by Lanza — for criminal purposes.
That seems absurd on its face, and Second Amendment legal experts have said as much.
“These defamatory allegations are blatantly false and any advertising by the defendants could not conceivably have been a proximate cause of the murderous rampage at the school,†Dr. Stephen Halbrook, a Second Amendment litigator, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“This is the very kind of case the PLCAA was intended to prevent,†he added.
So, why would Congress and then-President George W. Bush move to specifically protect gun makers from civil liability? Because the Left was targeting them for civil liability after guns they made and sold lawfully were used for illegal purposes.
“This is like suing Ford or General Motors because a car they sold was stolen and used to run over a pedestrian all because the car manufacturers advertised that their car had better acceleration and performance than other vehicles,†the Second Amendment Foundation’s Alan Gottlieb added in a statement to TheDCF.
Nevertheless, Halbrook thinks SCOTUS should review this case for two reasons. One, the Connecticut high court ruling conflicts with other judicial decisions:
One such ruling, from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Glock Inc. intentionally saturated the gun market in order to capitalize on illegal sales. As in the Sandy Hook case, the plaintiffs accused Glock of reckless marketing strategies which created a risk that buyers would use their product for criminal activities.
Two, says Halbrook, the state supreme court ruling addresses a key component of federal law that should be definitively resolved, which is another criterion SCOTUS uses to determine which cases justices elect to hear.
That said, time may not be on Bushmaster’s side:
When the justices are asked to hear a case, each side files a succession of briefs and counter-briefs over an approximately three month period. If there is that typical three-month filing interval, the justices will not formally consider a Bushmaster petition until the middle of June.
The Court adjourns for the summer at the end of June, and will not resume consideration of prospective cases until the fall. As such, a decision on a Bushmaster petition might not come until at least October.
Were the Court to grant the petition, the justices would most likely hear the case in early 2020. A decision would follow by June of that year.
If the justices deny Bushmaster’s petition, the case will return for further proceedings in the trial court, where Halbrook predicted that the plaintiffs will use the evidence gathering phase to seek a wide range of information about Bushmaster’s internal operations.
Meantime, plaintiffs’ lawyers could — and likely will — subpoena all kinds of documents from the gun maker, no matter how little they pertain to the actual case, in an attempt to discover any nefarious or illegal business activities that could be used against it.
“The case will be remanded to the Connecticut trial court, where plaintiffs will use discovery to harass the defendants and to require production of limitless documents on every aspect of their businesses, no matter how remote,†Halbrook said.
The fact is, Lanza was responsible for the carnage at Sandy Hook — not the gun, or the gunmaker. It is hard to imagine that Bushmaster will be eventually held liable for the attack, especially given current federal law. But these days, when it comes to the Left’s anti-Second Amendment zealotry, you just never know.
- Follow Jon Dougherty on Twitter at @JonDougherty10
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wonder why the parents aren’t suing the PHARMACEUTICAL manufacturers whose poison warped the mind of the “ALLEGED” shooter?? Oh that’s not part of the AGENDA against guns! silly me!
I sat down at my desk to finish my eoy bridge insp. reports that cold dec. morn as the chopper news guy was saying (on my computer) they were getting there just as the police were arriving. I watched nonstop until 12 pm (lunch) and watched for a few more min’s before leaving work that afternoon. the 10 am mass evacuation of hundreds of k-4 children never happened., and the video doesn’t exist, now. the chopper news guys weren’t in on it then as they theorized some about tunnels and where the hundreds of children might have gone. nothing much… Read more »
Absolutely. No school in working order has hanging asbestos exposed or furniture piled in front of Windows, furthermore Supposed Parents of slaughtered children would be losing their minds on camera without the laugh breaks caught on Hot Camera Backgrounds when they aren’t aware that they were on film. One man was laughing only later holding up an onion to his eyes to become the distressed and lamenting father on film. CHECK IN HERE LIGHTED EVENT SIGNS were magically delivered and set up before EVEN Ambulances were allowed in… Where was the massive required response to handle 24 dead or dying… Read more »
BINGO!
Sue the clothing companies that produced what Lanza was wearing; he’d have never made it to Sandy Hook if naked.
Where does this insanity stop?
Sandy Hook was a “staged event”. A gun control tool. Now they’re dragging it out again because they found a new angle. Smoke and mirrors. Maybe they can drag out that old movie actor Robbie Parker to work up some tears again. Bring an onion guys. Dave has it right above.
I thought all this third party liability nonsense was settled decades ago. Perhaps not in that state but certainly at the federal level. This is going to the ash heap but not before it costs the gun maker a bundle. They should get their lawyers fees or sue for them.
If this ridiculous case makes it to the SCOTUS, they’ll shoot it down (pun intended). If we start holding companies responsible for how people use their products the entire economy will grind to a halt. There would be nobody left to manufacture guns, cars, heavy equipment, tools, etc. The risk would be too great. Not to mention it’s morally incorrect to punish someone for someone else’s actions.
Particularly when those actions never happened.
Do they know they will have to pay all the legal fees of the company they sued when they lose?