Democrats Meet, Scheme to Overturn Gun Liability Ban

Democrats met on Wednesday to figure out how to resurrect legislation that would overturn the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, otherwise known as the bill that prevents firearms manufacturers from being held liable when their products are used in a crime.

Democrat presidential candidate and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has been taking heat on the campaign trail for supporting the original measure — and now Sanders says he will back the next attempt to roll back the 2005 bill.

What the Democrats are trying to do is open up the firearms industry to liability suits when criminals use their product to commit a crime.  The PLCAA is not used to shield manufacturers from liability regarding items that are defective or to protect the manufacturers from prosecution for actual criminal conduct. All the 2005 act says is that gun companies can’t be held responsible for what someone else does with their product.

Proponents deny they are working on a new bill to give Sanders a “do-over” on one of the left’s favorite issues.

“I introduced this legislation last session, and I’m not prescient enough to know what the course of the presidential race would look like this session,” Adam Schiff (D-CA) said. “So, the motivation behind the legislation is very much to repeal this immunity shield that the gun industry enjoys.”

“Look, without personalizing it to the presidential candidates, I think it was a tragedy that this bill was passed, PLCAA, in the first place,” Schiff added. “We are trying to end the harm by this, but the harm has already been done in a sense that for the last decade gun manufacturers and dealers have had little incentive to act with a reasonable standard of care.”

Schiff and fellow gun grabber Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) acknowledged at a press conference yesterday that the legislation is a long shot (no pun intended, of course).

“Putting aside the presidential politics, I think that there is a sense that the vice-like throttle held by the gun lobby is breaking, and that the American public is awakening to the public health crisis that this epidemic of gun violence poses,” Blumenthal said.

I don’t think so.