NPR vs NRA re: PLCAA ... RKBA S.O.L.?

When Onus Falls On Gun Sellers, National Concealed Carry Is 'Frightening' : NPR:

I'm not a 'great fan' of National Public Radio.

Well, that's fair; NPR is not a great fan of me.

I'm a white male Conservative native-born American, and I own a gun.
Well ... several guns, actually.  
And that's why they don't like me: I don't fit their demographic.

NPR has declared war against me, and against all legal firearms owners; and against the Second Amendment in general.

This is why I'm sure they don't like me:

There's a new coalition working against gun violence - a group of high-powered corporate law firms. After the Orlando nightclub shooting, a number of prominent attorneys banded together to collaborate - at no cost - with gun control advocates. Their goal is to attack gun issues through the courts and through state regulation. 
Michael Schissel heads up gun safety litigation at Arnold & Porter. The firm's a member of the coalition. And he says that by banding together, corporate attorneys are better able to serve gun control groups.

 MICHAEL SCHISSEL: What they really need is our collective talent and our collective manpower. Everybody knows how well-financed and aggressive the gun lobby is. And I think it's going to require the brute force of the major law firms in this country, and I can give you two examples. For example, there is a law called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act called PLCAA - some people call it PLCAA - which effectively immunizes sellers of firearms from liability except in a few cases. There's no other law - no other law at all - that shields consumer products from safety regulation. And here we're talking about a product that can kill. 

Wow.   I am in awe of Michael Schissel's grasp of the law.

Except that the context of his statement is just a little ... misleading.

I've talked about PLCAA before (go to my website and enter PLCAA in the search box) and my understanding of PLCAA  is greatly different from M. Schissell LLD.

My understanding is that firearms manufacturers, wholesalers and retail dealers are quite as subject to product liability suits as any other industry.

But the firearms industry has one unique vulnerability:  "Nuisance Suits" brought against the industry are often imposed with no expectation of winning (in the exemplar case of a merchant shooting a robber, and the manufacturer/wholesaler/retailer is named in the suit).

Let's look at the difference between product liability and Personal Liability, in the general sense:

Liability; Automobile Version:
If an automobile left idling in "PARK" moves and causes injury or damage, then the manufacturer is likely found liable. There's something obviously wrong with the car; either a design or a manufacturing flaw.

If the owner of the car leaves his automobile idling in "DRIVE", the car moves and causes injury or damage, then the owner is liable ... not the manufacturer (or designer nor retailer).

However, if the owner parks his car and leaves the motor running but the transmission is locked in "PARK".  The manufacturer is to blame

In the case of a rifle which fires when nobody pulls the trigger?
That's a malfunction.   The rifle shouldn't fire.   The cause might be because there's a design flaw (rifles of the same design often malfunction in the same manner), or there's a manufacturing flaw (only the specific rifle has that problem.).

Both are situations where the owner might sue for redress against the manufacturer.   If an injury is caused, the damages might be extensive and an entire product line, or only a specific manufacturing run, might be recalled.

On the other hand, there may be no malfunction involved.

The owner of the firearm might point the rifle at another person (either negligently, or purposefully) and pull the trigger; the gun goes BOOM!, someone is injured ... but the rifle performed according to specifications.  That's either a Personal Injury issue or a Criminal issue.  It's not the fault of the gun.

If the rifle performs according to specifications, neither the designer, nor the manufacturer, nor the wholesaler or retailer, are responsible for the negligent or criminal actions of the person with his finger on the trigger.

The PLCAA is the law which protects the manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer against "NUISANCE SUITS" brought by someone who is either personally injured by a firearm, or representing that person or 'other interested persons' (family, etc.)

Those nuisance suits undermine the validity of RESPONSIBLE manufacturing and firearms-handling.  The PLCAA protects firearms manufacturers/sellers who are not responsible for unsafe gun-handling on the part of individuals.

It serves no other purpose.

From the referenced dialogue:

 CHANG: If I could just address PLCAA - this is the federal law which protects gun manufacturers and dealers from liability when people use their guns in crimes. Make the argument for me. Why should manufacturers be held accountable for the actions of the individuals who buy their products?

SCHISSEL: Well, it's not just manufacturers, and that's really the important thing. In fact, my firm has been involved more on the retail level. 

 CHANG: OK, fine, retailers. 

 SCHISSEL: Yeah, it immunizes sellers. So, for example, there are state laws that literally immunize a gun seller of any liability even if that gun seller knows he's selling a gun to a criminal. 

(emphasis added)


NO!

Schissel, knowing the laws that require a DEALER to check a BUYER on the National Instant Check System (NICS) to determine whether that BUYER is legally allowed to purchase a gun from a DEALER, should know that  the seller is not "immunized .. of any liability".  But he deliberately ignores those laws to suggest that a Dealer can knowingly sell a gun to a Criminal.

Once a Dealer has checked a Buyer via NICS, the dealer can confidently assume that the Buyer is legally permitted to purchase a firearm.

Schissel's entire argument is undermined by his peurile counter-argument that a dealer can knowingly sell a firearm to a known criminal ... without penalty and without being audited by the ATF.

There is no no 'wiggle room' here.

The man is a liar, who deliberately convolutes the strict interpretation of the law to suit his own political agenda

Even ABC Admits Gun Control Fails To Stop Gun Violence

ABC News: Obama Big Talk, 'Little' Action on Guns Since Sandy Hook:

The Sandy Hook attack was carried out by a gunman who stole his firearms, killed his own mother with one of the weapons, and thereafter, went to the school and killed 26 innocents. Democrats seized on the attack as an opportunity to pass gun control. They pressed for universal background checks in Manchin/Toomey, and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) pushed an “assault weapons” ban. Obama supported both measures, yet both went down in flames. This was largely because neither action would have stopped another Sandy Hook attack.

[emphasis added]

(H/T: TheGunFeed.com)

S,C deputy: "It Just Went Off! I don't know how it happened!"

Was this another "Blame it on the Buckle" Incident?

Upstate deputy transported to hospital after accidentally shooting self, sheriff says:

Anderson County Sheriff's Office officials said that one of their own was taken to AnMed Hospital after accidentally shooting himself in the leg. Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper said that the deputy was coming home from an extra duty assignment at NewSpring Church. As he removed his gun from its holster, it went off and the bullet struck his leg, Skipper said. Skipper said the deputy is regularly assigned to Westside High School as their resource officer.

Somebody ought to shoot his Training Officer, too, for not teaching the deputy to keep his finger off the trigger until he's ready to shoot somebody.   (Preferably, somebody else!)

Considering that the deputy is a high school "resource officer", it might be a good idea to reassign him before he shoots a kid.

Either that, or fire him

PS:  The headline line quote I added wasn't in the article, but you can bet that's what he said to shis sheriff.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Snow in Geekistan!

Freezing rain changed to Sleet this afternoon.  At 8pm there's almost a half inch of snow in Geekistan.

That's significant, because it's the first measurable snow we've had here since February 07, 2014.

Which looked like this.

It's not nearly so impressive today.

Yet.

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Last weekend, while I was grocery shopping, I bought a suet block and a 'suet feeder cage' to hang from the fence around my patio.   I had heard it was going to be a cold week, and it seemed like a good idea.

Yesterday, one sparrow and three blue jays came by for a snack.

Today the temperatures hover around the freezing point.   Sleet, ice pellets, freezing rain at various times of the day.

Looking out my patio door, I counted as many as eight sparrows fluttering around the feeder.

The suet block is 2/3 gone, already.

Tomorrow, I'll have to go buy another suet block.   It seems very popular.

In fact ... I might as well stock up.   Those sparrows eat more than I do!

Big Trouble for Dingey Harry?

A $2M check, Harry Reid and one frustrated prosecutor | The Salt Lake Tribune:

Shurtleff said he asked Johnson why he considered the $250,000 a bribe and not just "straight-up lobbying" money — as Swallow has argued it was. "He says, 'because I bribed Harry Reid before,' " Shurtleff recalled in an interview with The Tribune.

(Hat Tip: Codrea, The War On guns)

California: "Second Amendment? What's That All About?"

WARNING: California Law Now Allows Police To Seize Guns From Your Home WITHOUT ANY CHARGES:

A California law now allows police to seize private, legally-owned weapons for as long as three weeks without charges and without allowing the citizen to contest the seizure. The law, known as AB1014, was passed last year after the Isla Vista shooting where teenager Elliot Rodger went on a shooting spree near the University of California campus in Santa Barbara, killing six people before turning his gun on himself.

Everybody in California is as crazy as Elliot Roger, right?

OH ... only those who are elected into public office.

Okay.  I understand it now.

(The best day of my life was when I moved back to Oregon after 3 years in California!)

Where's the Ticker Tape Parade for the hero Alan Horujko?

Give them a thin week to tweak reality; Anti-Gunners can turn a COME TO JESUS moment into ... any way you want to name it ,,, obscurity!

When a freak Muslim Marauder (let us call a Spade a Spade; he wasn't a Scientology Extrovert) decided to run down a herd of turtles on an Ohio sidewalk (for the greater glory of Allah), and who then waded into the crowd with a carving knife, Ohio State University 'Campus Cop' ALAN HORUJKO turned that moment of opportunity into a life-saving glory because he just happened to be on the block; he was performing other duties, and he was armed.

He (ALAN HORUJKO) saw <name with-held> wading through a crowd of students on the sidewalk, and imposed his own sense of right by drawing his issued pistol and drilling said Jihad Warrior through the heart.

Which was, under the circumstances, the just and right way of stopping a Jihandi DRT.

                                                  ( "Dead Right There!").

No, it was not a matter of the University of Ohio having the prescience to station an armed policeman in what was essentially a "Dead Zone" (not specifically protected by Campus Cops) ... he just happened to be there tending to 'other business', and when the Asshole Assailant started Slicing and Dicing (after having already mowed down his daily Game Bag of undergraduate lemmings via Volvo), this Ohio Hero  ... did I mention that his name is Alan Horujko?  ,,, waded in and killed the M.F. in his tracks ... arguably saving the lives of tens or twenties of clueless coeds in the process.

And I bet he never even got as much as a kiss from a coed for his efforts.

Well Done sir!

But what does the Lame Stream Media (and the U* of O*) make of it?

Oh,  because OSU (Ohio State University, not Oregon State University) is so terribly, terribly concerned for the safety of their students and faculty, had they deliberately stationed an armed guard in what was a potential kill zone in case some Muslim Maniac decided to start Slicing and Dicing their tuition-paying student body?

Not!

Here's how the efforts of OSU Campus Policeman Alan Horujko were lauded immediately after the kerfluffle, on November 28, 2016:

Monday morning, an “active shooter” alert was sent out by the Ohio State University Emergency Management Team as a man identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan recklessly attacked individuals on campus grounds with a car and a knife.Artan crashed his vehicle into pedestrians on campus, then emerged from his vehicle brandishing a butcher knife, proceeding to assault several people on the scene.At least nine people were hospitalized, including one in “critical condition,” CNN reported.

Please pay attention:  Alan Horujko did his job, and fulfilled the the destiny of hopeful Jihad Warrior (name not given homage) by shooting the Mortar Forker through the gizzard, with a combination of Speed, Power and Accuracy. The Allah-driven asshole's name is mentioned twice in the article; the hero's name is never mentioned.

(DVC!  And if that's not a real word .. it ought to be!)

Horujko wasn't on-site to shoot potential mass murderers, because OSU didn't expect some Islamic Asshole to drive through the Thanksgiving throngs in his Dodge Dart (whatever).

 Horujko was just A Good Man With A Gun (which you may have noticed that the Main Stream Media never fully acknowledged).  I don't know, he was wandering across the campus collecting for the March of Dimes or some similar benign benefit.    The reason doesn't matter; what does matter was that he was there, he was armed, he seen his duty and he done it.

But does the MSM mention that?

Oh, HELL NO!

And here is how a grateful student body at Ohio State University recognized Alan Horujko's contribution to the longevity of OSU students:


Should Ohio's universities be able to authorize concealed-carry on campus? No | The Columbus Dispatch:

Last week, an OSU student drove his car into a crowded pedestrian sidewalk and then began stabbing students in the vicinity with a butcher knife. OSU immediately activated its emergency operations while one of the university's police officers acted swiftly and admirably to secure the situation and protect those in the vicinity. The only life lost was the perpetrator’s. This incident demonstrates that the extensive planning and training OSU law enforcement routinely undertakes works. 

John R. Lott Jr.: Yes, criminals and terrorists perfer (sic) gun-free zones Nonetheless, proponents of H.B. 48 claim that 1) the current prohibition of civilian guns makes campuses attractive to mass shooters because their plans are less likely to be thwarted by another gunman, and 2) allowing guns on campus would give a civilian gunman the opportunity to neutralize an active shooter and prevent more casualties. Yet there is no evidence that mass shooters intentionally seek out gun-free zones. In fact, 90 percent of mass shooting incidences have occurred in locations where civilians were permitted to have guns, or where armed law enforcement was present. The notion that mass shooters want to avoid law enforcement or armed civilians assumes that the shooter does not have specific motive, and that he intends to survive the incident. Evidence, however, su ,,,,,

So, when did Ohio, and a Grateful Nation give Alan a parade?

Not.  

Alan Horujko ... will fade back into obscurity, because he didn't follow the Main Stream Media game-plan of running around like a chicken with his head cut off when Un-named Asshole started shooting students.

I don't know about you, but I personally think that this is a travesty of justice, when a real-life HERO is ignored, and the Asshole Assailant gets all the press.

This is perhaps the final accolade that a "Grateful Nation" can pay this unsung hero.

Remember the name:

Alan Horujko 

Liberal Focus on Criminals ... and Citizens are criminals

America’s Obsession with Powerful Handguns Is Giving Criminals Deadlier Tools - The Trace:

There are more high-caliber pistols available on the civilian market in the U.S. than ever before. In the last two decades, manufacturers have pumped out huge quantities of these guns, marketing them as weapons perfectly suited for a specific purpose: repelling human attackers.

"The Trace" (arguably, an offshoot of The Daily KOS .. a notorious Liberal blogger who is knee-jerk reactionaryily against the Second Amendment Rights of American citizens) is focusing on the sales records of "high-caliber" firearms.

It's mission statement is:

The Trace is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization dedicated to expanding public understanding of gun violence in the United States. There is an urgent need for the knowledge that public interest journalism can provide, because in this case one problem — America’s epidemic rates of shooting deaths and injuries, which leave 33,000 people killed annually and another 79,000 wounded — is compounded by another: a shortage of information about the issue. It is The Trace’s mission to close that deficit through daily reporting,investigations, analysis, and commentary on the policy, politics, culture, and business of guns in America.

(Just so we all understand the background of the website.)

Why did The Trace make this statement?

Because it makes the news.

Not because it's a significant factor in The War Against Guns.  It's just another liberal website with the intention to counter Conservative Talk.  They have already established their political stance; now they're pursuing their mission statement.  We could expect no better from them.

The whole thing is (as you suspected) merely a Talking Point which they figure will give them the high ground ... moral equivalence ...because if they talk about POWERFUL HANDGUNS they can make it seem as if standard defensive calibers are somehow A Bad Thing.

Oh, and about that whole ... manufacturers have pumped out huge quantities of these guns    ....  thing?

Well, hell yes!  Any manufacture makes the product which is in great demand by their market.

America ... when's the last time you saw a .22 short?  A .22 Long?  Even the venerable .22 Long rifle has its niche market, which is plinking at tin cans and varmint shooting at close range.   NOBODY today builds a firearm which is restricted to the anemic .22 short or the ineffective .22 Long cartridge.

Of COURSE the demand for more effective (defensive rounds) has increased.  They build the product which sells, and since the recent trend of  'mass shootings' has focused on Public Places, Americans have armed themselves to defend against "The Threat Which Must Not Be Named"!

And since the original article is careful not to define the term "High Caliber", it's logical to assume that (by their terms) the .22 Long Rifle falls within the category.  Or not.

They don't cite the source for their 'statistics'.

And they lament the "... shortage of information about the issue" ??

PS: It's worth your while to see what Herschel has to say about the issue: