Nine families of victims from the Sandy Hook shooting event successfully sued Remington Arms, the manufacturer of the weapon reportedly used by Adam Lanza, setting a bad precedent. Mark Pellin reported that the plaintiffs circumvented federal law and claimed that the company’s advertising and marketing campaigns made Remington culpable rather than the actual firearm itself. He wrote that the Remington case was meant to deliver a template for future litigants to go after gun manufacturers and clears the way for more litigation that will either force other gun companies out of business under the financial stress of defending themselves, effectively reducing the supply of guns, or make guns so prohibitively expensive that the average law-abiding citizen can’t afford them.
Please refer to our earlier reports (here and here) on the Remington case that settled for $73 million and James Fetzer’s case in which he was sued by a parent of Sandy Hook and he says the shooting event was staged to disarm America.
Gun manufacturers in California may become susceptible to lawsuits from private citizens alleging negligence under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday.
The legislation could allow gun makers to be sued by citizens, local governments, or the state’s attorney general if one of their firearms is used irresponsibly or causes harm. It would also create a code of conduct to reduce gun violence that would “establish, implement, and enforce reasonable controls … pertaining to unfair methods of competition, unfair or deceptive acts or practices, and false advertising,” according to the bill .
“Nearly every industry is held to account when their products cause harm or injury,” Newsom said . “All except one: the gun industry. Today, California is going to change that. They can no longer hide from the mass destruction that they have caused.”
Under federal law, gun manufacturers are typically protected from civil lawsuits under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act but can still be held responsible if they are found to be guilty of negligence or in breach of contract.
Newsom’s law would be enacted under an exemption of that 2005 law by allowing private citizens to file a lawsuit if the gun maker is found to be in violation of state laws regarding gun sales or marketing. The bill was specifically modeled after an abortion law passed in Texas earlier this year that deputizes private citizens to sue abortion providers who are found guilty of aiding or abetting abortion in the state.
Need To Know/ Fetzer: https://needtoknow.news/2022/03/the-sandy-hook-shooting-a-huge-controversy-that-lingers/
Need To Know/ Remington: https://needtoknow.news/2022/02/%ef%bf%bcremington-arms-to-pay-73-million-in-sandy-hook-case-cerberus-bankrupted-remington/