Gun Opponents Criticize Firearm Tort Reform

Gun Opponents Criticize Firearm Tort Reform -- GOPUSA

GOPUSA brings our attention to a not-very new bill currently being considered by the House of Representatives .. H. R. 800.

You may recall that a similar bill was introduced last year, during the Presidential Election. John Kerry and his DemocRatic Cronies managed to put paid to that bill by attaching riders which were entirely unacceptable to any RKBA supporter.

Left to right: Charles Schumer *, Diane Feinstein, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy leave the Senate Chambers after having registered their votes for riders designed to undermine the bill for tort reform which would have protected Firearms Manufacturers against Third Party Civil suits. September, 2004.

Kerry was away from the Senate all year, but he showed up long enough to trash the bill which was proposed to protect Firearms Manufacurers against third-party civil suits.



Please write your Congressman in support of this bill.

This is the entire content of the letter I wrote to my Representative, Congressman Peter De Fazio representing the Fourth Congressional District of Oregon:

Sir,
I bring your attention to House Bill H.R. 800, dated February 5, 2005.

Please support H.R. 800 when it comes to a vote in the House.

This Bill would provide protection to Firearms Manufacturers from third-party lawsuit.

Specifically, if a firearm would be used illegally by a person who purchased the firearm from a retailer, the manufacturer of the firearm AND the dealer would be protected from civil suit not pertaining to product liability.

I submit that these sort of lawsuits are currently pertinent only to lawfully acquired firearms, not to automobiles, knives, explosives, axes, rakes, hoes, iron pipes, airplanes, lead-filled hoses, matches, "The Club" or any other tool or object which may be misused by the end-purchaser.


Firearms are arguably the singly most regulated product of any manufacturer or dealer in America today. They are also the single object whose ownership is protected by the U. S. Constitution (2nd amendment).

Still, the manufacturers and retailers of this legal product are subject to egregious distortion of common law for no better reason than that some people fear the object. This fear is based upon ignorance and the resultant lawsuits are often based upon greed.

I personally own several firearms, all legally acquired and responsibly handled. Many of these firearms have been handed down to me by family members over he years. No firearm in my possession have every been knowingly pointed at another living being, let alone at a human, let alone with malice or intent to cause harm.

Yet if my home were to be illegally burgled, the security of my storage system compromised and the firearms stolen by a felon, the manufacturers (and the individuals from which I acquired the firearms, including members of my family) would be subject to civil suit. Not because they were irresponsible; not because they were negligent; but because they (in good faith) transferred a firearm to a family member.

This could be construed as the action of a "dealer", because they didn't manufacture the firearm. Thus, it is important that we not only protect manufacturers, but also dealers.

If dealers fail to observe current law regulating the transfer of firearms, they would be liable by existing laws and this bill would not apply.

But if the firearm functioned safely, taking into account the generally accepted rules of firearm safety; and if the manufacturer/dealer observed current law in the transfer of firearms, why should this legal transaction be cause for civil suit?

That's all this law would protect; the right of honest men to conduct business in accordance with current law, and the protection of their legal business, whether they are, in fact, businessmen or private citizens.

Please support H.R. 800 when it comes to a vote in the House.

To do otherwise would unreasonable, would not support the rights of the honest citizens of which you are representative, and would allow great harm to befall honest people.

* UPDATE: April 24, 2005

Molon Labe, in the Comments, corrects the Geek: the individual on the left of the photo is Charles Schumer (D-NY) not Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) as was previously reported.
Thanx to Molon Labe for the correction. For some of us, it's terribly difficult to distinguish one DemocRat from the other; their politics are similar, but they don't really LOOK alike!