One of the major goals of the left in this country is the destruction of the 2nd Amendment, specifically, civilian ownership of firearms. During the Clinton administration, the Department of Justice extorted gun manufacturers with the threat of litigation, ala the tobacco shakedown:
”This is not gun control,” said Representative Carolyn B. McCarthy, a Long Island Democrat who spoke out against the amendment and in support of the agreement. ”This is gun safety where a manufacturer comes before us and says it will do what it can to make our communities safer.”
Today’s action is the latest twist in the effort by the Clinton administration to break the solid wall of opposition to gun control by the nation’s gun manufacturers.
In March the administration announced that it had reached an agreement with Smith & Wesson, the country’s oldest and largest maker of firearms and a unit of Tomkins P.L.C. of London. In return for entering into the agreement, the administration and several cities agreed to drop their lawsuits against Smith & Wesson…
Next, the Obama regime continued on with Operation Choke Point (Cutting off firearms manufacturers from financing and banking services) and Operation Fast and Furious (Setting up a false narrative of American gun sellers intentionally supplying weapons used by Mexican gangs).
I thought of these actions recently as Remington Firearms settled a lawsuit from the families of children murdered by a Bushmaster AR-15. It loaded itself, transported itself to the school, broke into the building, started targeting people and firing.
That’s the way this works, right?
Sandy Hook families announce $73 million settlement with Remington Arms in landmark agreement
When the families of nine of the victims of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School began their lawsuit against the gunmaker of the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle, their goal was to spare other families the pain that had upended their own lives…
Full disclosure, I’ve owned and used a Bushmaster AR-15 for almost a decade as a patrol carbine rifle. Before that, I used the Ruger Mini-14 on the streets. Both fire .223, have 30 round magazines, but I personally find the Ruger to have more accurate iron sights. But no one, that I’ve heard of, has called the Ruger an “assault rifle.” Maybe I should shut up now.
…The settlement, reached with the families of five children and four adults who were killed in the 2012 shooting, draws in all four of Remington’s insurers and allows the families to share thousands of pages of company documents it obtained during discovery — provisions that legal experts and attorneys for the families say represent a landmark victory in forcing a gun manufacturer to face responsibility for how it markets its products.
Crucially, the settlement also provides a framework for how to pursue legal action against gun manufacturers that have for decades enjoyed broad protection from lawsuits under a federal shield law…
…Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D), who in 2017 filed an amicus brief in the state Supreme Court in support of the Sandy Hook families, said in a statement that the families showed the gun industry is not above the law.
“Today’s settlement is a clear indication that PLCAA is not the impenetrable shield that the gun industry wishes it to be, and that gun manufacturers who violate state consumer protection laws can and should be held accountable,” Tong said. The PLCAA is the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a federal shield law that grants gun manufacturers broad immunity from lawsuits.
Tearful family members of the victims gathered at a Connecticut hotel Tuesday as Koskoff discussed the culmination of their eight-year-long battle that began two years after shooter Adam Lanza tore through the Newtown, Conn., elementary school with a high-powered rifle and killed 26 people, including 20 young children…
Which high powered rifle would that be? Looking at the list, Lanza used the Bushmaster, which fires a .223 round. That is not a “high powered” rifle, such as a .308, 30-30, or 30.06. He also used a Glock 20 10mm semiautomatic pistol, a Sig Sauer P226 9mm semiautomatic handgun, and an Izhmash Saiga 12-gauge semiautomatic shotgun.
Sorry, don’t see a Winchester 700 or Barrett BMG in there.
…Tuesday’s agreement isn’t the first time a gun manufacturer has settled with the families of victims killed by its firearms: In 2004, Bushmaster agreed to pay $2.5 million to families of victims in the D.C. sniper case.
Strange, did General Motors settle with the families of the people murdered by the two snipers? After all, they used a Chevrolet Caprice as a mobile shooting site, so isn’t the car manufacturer responsible?
…The narrowed lawsuit was filed under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act and contended, among other things, that the Bushmaster was a “combat weapon” designed for war, yet Remington improperly marketed it to civilians.
That is a bold-faced lie. I ask this lawyer to name one army in the world that uses the AR-15. I’ll wait.
In particular, the complaint alleged Remington pushed a weapon to young men like Lanza, the 20-year-old shooter who killed 20 first-graders and six educators before turning the gun on himself; Lanza also killed his mother off-site before the school shooting.
Yes, Lanza murdered his mother, then stole her legally obtained firearms and used them to commit a mass murder. But nothing these families and the attorneys general are saying would have changed what happened. Lanza violated many laws, including under age possession of a weapon, and bringing a fire arm onto a school ground. In addition, he had already committed the felony of murder before he walked into the school and murdered all those kids.
It is not a tragedy that these people’s lives were taken. An auto accident killing a family or a plane crash wiping out hundreds is a tragedy. This was an abomination, a monstrosity, pure evil. But is it Ford or Chevrolet’s fault when the owner of one of their vehicles, after getting drunk and driving off, kills that family? Is Boeing legally responsible when a 737 gets hit by wind shear upon take off and crashes? The drunk driver is responsible for his actions when he gets behind a wheel intoxicated. The murderer is responsible for the crimes he commits, not the Ryder Truck Company, who leased a vehicle to Timothy McVeigh, who used it to murder 168 people.
The Supreme Court green lighted this legal abortion when it refused to take the appeal of Remington on this matter. The case should have been dismissed outright, as federal law shields gun manufactures from overzealous lawyers and state authorizes. Again, what else was responsible for this man murdering these people? The manufacturer of the car he used? The gas station that filled the car he used? The publisher of the violent comics Lanza read or the manufacturer of the psychiatric narcotics he was on?
The answer? None of those things listed. The reason was Adam Lanza.
Michael A. Thiac is a retired Army intelligence officer, with over 23 years experience, including serving in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the Middle East. He is also a retired police patrol sergeant, with over 22 years’ service, and over ten year’s experience in field training of newly assigned officers. He has been published at The American Thinker, PoliceOne.com, and on his personal blog, A Cop’s Watch.
Opinions expressed are his alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of current or former employers.
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Well said, sir!
Personal responsibility for one’s actions seems far removed from today’s society.
It’s been replaced with “Who can I sue?”
“Who can I sue that has deep pockets?”
Your argument is well founded, but the fact remains that you can’t argue with these people, Mike. They just have to be defeated, like an invading army.
Why Remington would not appeal that nonsense escapes me. I wonder who is fronting all that money, since I thought Remington Arms was a bankrupt entity? Probably will be the tax payers. Depending on which item in a search one looks at, a prevailing verb is used in the past tense: was, in reference to Remington Arms.