fox files

Anti-Gunners Come for Remington. AGAIN!
BY TIM SCHMIDT – USCCA FOUNDER

Does any good firearms-related news come out of Connecticut? If what happened this week is any indication, I’d say that’s a resounding no.

According to the Washington Post, “Gun-maker Remington can be sued over how it marketed the rifle used to kill 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, a divided Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Thursday.”

If this story sounds familiar, you’re probably recalling how, back in April 2016, Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis ruled to allow the same wrongful death suit to move forward, rejecting the “argument that a 2005 federal law can protect gun businesses from civil lawsuits.”

That federal law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), “protects firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held liable when crimes have been committed with their products. However, both manufacturers and dealers can still be held liable for damages resulting from defective products, breach of contract, criminal misconduct and other actions for which they are directly responsible,” GovTrack.us explains.

Families of several children killed in the Newtown attack and one surviving teacher brought the original lawsuit against Remington Arms, parent company of Bushmaster Firearms, who manufactured the weapon — a Bushmaster AR-15 — used by Adam Lanza in the school shooting. According to The Washington Examiner, the basis of the families’ suit was that “the military-style gun should have never been available for civilians to purchase.”

Although lawyers for Remington Arms sought to dismiss the lawsuit back in 2016, Bellis ruled that Remington’s argument “that the federal law shields gun manufacturers from most lawsuits over criminal use of their products … would be best made in a motion later in the process and [was] not grounds to dismiss the lawsuit.”

But it was later dismissed — by the same judge, no less:

According to PBS News Hour, in October 2016, Bellis “granted a motion by the North Carolina-based Remington Arms to dismiss the wrongful death lawsuit brought by the families of nine Sandy Hook victims.”

But in a stunning 4-3 decision this past Thursday, as reported in the Washington Post, “justices reinstated a wrongful death lawsuit against Remington filed by a survivor and relatives of nine people killed in the school massacre. The decision overturned a lower court ruling that dismissed the lawsuit, citing a 2005 federal law that shields gun manufacturers from liability in most cases when their products are used in crimes. The majority said that while most of the lawsuit’s claims were barred by the federal law, Remington could still be sued for alleged wrongful marketing under Connecticut law.”

Nicole Hockley, mother of a 6-year-old boy who died in the shooting, said Thursday that “a main goal of the lawsuit is to stop Remington and other gun makers from gearing their advertising toward troubled young men,” the Washington Post reported. “We have always said our case is about reckless sales and marketing to disturbed youth,” Hockley said. “We wanted our day in court. This is a step forward to ensure that manufacturers like Remington are not allowed to keep targeting people who are at risk.”

I’m not sure how it can be argued that Remington “marketed” its product to Lanza. He wasn’t even the one who purchased it.

I stand by previous comments that Sandy Hook was a terrible, terrible tragedy perpetrated by the evil intentions and actions of ONE man. Remington couldn’t have known that he would murder his mother and steal her Bushmaster. Insinuating that the company is somehow responsible for the 2012 event is entirely off-base and is COMPLETELY IRRESPONSIBLE!. It sets VERY dangerous precedents.

Regardless of the outcome, this is a devastating blow to the firearms industry and — quite frankly — a blatant attempt by anti-gunners to put firearms manufacturers out of business, thus denying millions of responsible Americans their God-given right to keep and bear arms.

I will forever mourn the loss of innocent life at Sandy Hook, but I can’t sit back and say nothing when, once again, the fingers are pointed in the wrong directions.