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Week Ending July 29, 2005
S.397 A bill to prohibit civil liability actions from being brought or continued against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms or ammunition for damages, injunctive or other relief resulting from the misuse of their products by others.
BRIEF
The Senate steps squarely into the judicial world and halts, through this bill, certain current or future lawsuits against manufacturers and sellers of firearms, firearms components and ammunition.
The bill prohibits qualified civil suits for “damages, punitive damages, injunctive or declaratory relief, abatement, restitution, fines or penalties or other relief” as a result of the criminal or unlawful misuse of a firearm.
Lawsuits of the nature governed by this bill that are currently in the queue would be dismissed.
There are exceptions: If someone sells or transfers a firearm knowing it will be used to commit a crime of violence or drug trafficking, a person harmed by those crimes could sue the seller. Negligently entrusting someone with the firearm is grounds for legal action. Knowingly violating a State or Federal statute regarding the sale of firearms is not exempt. A breach of contract or warranty and death, injury or property damage due to a design or manufacturing defect is not exempt from liability unless the injury, etc was the result of a criminal act.
Sponsor: Senator Larry E. Craig (R-ID)
Vote: Passed Senate 65 to 31 (RV 219) (July 29, 2005)
Cost to the taxpayers: No discernible cost.
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MORE INFORMATION
AMENDMENTS
(a) Findings- Congress finds the following:
(1) The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
(2) The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the rights of individuals, including those who are not members of a militia or engaged in military service or training, to keep and bear arms.
(3) Lawsuits have been commenced against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers of firearms that operate as designed and intended, which seek money damages and other relief for the harm caused by the misuse of firearms by third parties, including criminals.
(4) The manufacture, importation, possession, sale, and use of firearms and ammunition in the United States are heavily regulated by Federal, State, and local laws. Such Federal laws include the Gun Control Act of 1968, the National Firearms Act, and the Arms Export Control Act.
(5) Businesses in the United States that are engaged in interstate and foreign commerce through the lawful design, manufacture, marketing, distribution, importation, or sale to the public of firearms or ammunition products that have been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce are not, and should not, be liable for the harm caused by those who criminally or unlawfully misuse firearm products or ammunition products that function as designed and intended.
(6) The possibility of imposing liability on an entire industry for harm that is solely caused by others is an abuse of the legal system, erodes public confidence in our Nation's laws, threatens the diminution of a basic constitutional right and civil liberty, invites the disassembly and destabilization of other industries and economic sectors lawfully competing in the free enterprise system of the United States, and constitutes an unreasonable burden on interstate and foreign commerce of the United States.
(7) The liability actions commenced or contemplated by the Federal Government, States, municipalities, and private interest groups and others are based on theories without foundation in hundreds of years of the common law and jurisprudence of the United States and do not represent a bona fide expansion of the common law. The possible sustaining of these actions by a maverick judicial officer or petit jury would expand civil liability in a manner never contemplated by the framers of the Constitution, by Congress, or by the legislatures of the several States. Such an expansion of liability would constitute a deprivation of the rights, privileges, and immunities guaranteed to a citizen of the United States under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
(8) The liability actions commenced or contemplated by the Federal Government, States, municipalities, private interest groups and others attempt to use the judicial branch to circumvent the Legislative branch of government to regulate interstate and foreign commerce through judgments and judicial decrees thereby threatening the Separation of Powers doctrine and weakening and undermining important principles of federalism, State sovereignty and comity between the sister States.
(b) Purposes- The purposes of this Act are as follows:
(1) To prohibit causes of action against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers of firearms or ammunition products, and their trade associations, for the harm solely caused by the criminal or unlawful misuse of firearm products or ammunition products by others when the product functioned as designed and intended.
(2) To preserve a citizen's access to a supply of firearms and ammunition for all lawful purposes, including hunting, self-defense, collecting, and competitive or recreational shooting.
(3) To guarantee a citizen's rights, privileges, and immunities, as applied to the States, under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, pursuant to section 5 of that Amendment.
(4) To prevent the use of such lawsuits to impose unreasonable burdens on interstate and foreign commerce.
(5) To protect the right, under the First Amendment to the Constitution, of manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers of firearms or ammunition products, and trade associations, to speak freely, to assemble peaceably, and to petition the Government for a redress of their grievances.
(6) To preserve and protect the Separation of Powers doctrine and important principles of federalism, State sovereignty and comity between sister States.
(7) To exercise congressional power under art. IV, section 1 (the Full Faith and Credit Clause) of the United States Constitution.
Reed Amdt. No. 1642; To provide a complete substitute.
Failed
Kennedy Amdt. No. 1615; To expand the definition of armor piercing ammunition and for other purposes.
Failed 31 to 64 RV217
Craig Amendment No. 1645; To regulate the sale and possession of armor piercing ammunition, and for other purposes.
Passed 87 to 11 RV 216
Lautenberg Amdt. No. 1620; To exempt lawsuits involving injuries to children from the definition of qualified civil liability action.
Failed 35 to 64 RV 215
Craig Amdt. No. 1644; To protect the rights of children who are victimized by crime to secure compensation from those who participate in the arming of criminals.
Passed 72 to 26 RV 214
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