President-Elect Joe Biden wants to “hold gun manufacturers accountable” by repealing a 2005 law called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, or PLCAA. The purpose of the PLCAA is to prevent abuse of the judicial system by individuals who want to bankrupt firearms manufacturers and gun dealers for things that they are not responsible for, such as criminal acts committed by third parties.
Biden blames passage of the PLCAA on gun manufacturers who “successfully lobbied Congress” and his website claims that the law grants “a protection granted to no other industry” but that opinion is wrong.
Courts across the country have routinely held that a product’s manufacturer cannot be held liable for the criminal acts of others. An example of this would be trying to hold an automobile manufacturer liable for the death of an individual killed by another driver or suing Stanley for producing a hammer used to bludgeon someone to death. PLCAA was enacted after over a decade of harassment by anti-gun localities insistent upon suing gunmakers and dealers into oblivion; the act is meant to prevent abuse of the courts by disallowing these anti-gun extremists from bringing a plethora of frivolous legal claims.
FPC opposes the repeal of PLCAA because no rational person supports the idea that the producer or purveyor of products intended for lawful purposes should be sued when their products are used by criminals. The real intent behind repealing the act is to bankrupt the companies that provide We the People with the most common means of access to adequate self-defense; those pushing for PLCAA’s repeal do not want justice, they want disarmament.
