[Texas Federalist]

It is not essential that Congress pass the liability bill itself. Basically, this bill will be preempting state common law - there is no federal law which allows suits against gunmakers. This is a state law matter and could be handled on a state level. Gunmakers have fared relatively well in these suits so far so there is no real reason to fear in the short term while we petition our state legislators.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know which, if any, states have passed gunmaker immunity legislation?

[Dead Corpse]

S.1806 is still alive in the Senate. It is on the calander as #364 I think. Still on the schedule according to the GPO. I think when it comes up on the schedule, it'll need to come up for consideration again. Considering what happened to its sister bill, that may not happen.

The House Bill passed without all this odeious crap.

[FormerlyAnotherLurker]

"Out of curiosity, does anyone know which, if any, states have passed gunmaker immunity legislation?"

http://www.firearmslawcenter.org/content/masterlist.asp#ImmunityStatute

[epow]

This is a state law matter and could be handled on a state level. Gunmakers have fared relatively well in these suits so far so there is no real reason to fear in the short term while we petition our state legislators.

First, it may be a state issue, but as long as one state allows frivolous suits against the industry that serves the anti's purpose almost as well a if all 50 allowed them. And you know as well as I do that many states have no intention of disallowing them, ever.

Second, there is plenty of reason to fear in both the short term and the long term. The fact that most suits so far have been failed to go to trial doesn't mean the gunmakers came out unscathed, in every case they spent millions in legal fees before it ever came to that point. The antis don't have to win a blockbuster lawsuit to destroy the firearms industry, their strategy is to kill it by a thousand cuts. Every time some mayor or state AG sues a manufacturer or a group of manufacturers and distributors those defendants have to spend millions of dollars on defense lawyers just to have the suit thrown out.

And of course it's a near certainty that sooner or later a court will allow a frivolous suit to go to trial, and in many states the jury will automatically be stacked against the industry from the get-go. Contrary to what many people think, the firearms manufacturers are not huge corporations with deep pockets. I don't have the figures with me, but I can tell you that even the largest and most profitable gunmakers like S&W, Remington, and Ruger are very small potatoes indeed compared to practically any well known large American corporation, and just one 100 million dollar jury award would almost certainly put any one of them into bankruptcy.