Massachusetts lawmakers will get the opportunity to consider a bill opening up firearm makers, distributers, and sellers, to lawsuits over the criminal misuse of guns.
The Boston Herald reported the bill places so-called “reasonable controls” on above-mentioned members of the firearms industry, including a mandate “to follow safeguards and business practices that backers say are designed to prevent the sale or distribution of guns to people prohibited from possession under state or federal law or individuals deemed to pose a ‘substantial risk’ of harming themselves or someone else.”
Firearms makers, distributors, and sellers would also have “to ensure that firearms aren’t designed, sold and advertised, to promote the conversion of legal products into illegal products, or in a way that targets minors or individuals prohibited from possessing guns.”
The legislation is being pushed by gun control groups while gun makers, distributors, and sellers, contend they ought not be held liable for criminal misuse of legally made and legally sold products.
The Fall River Reporter quoted Everytown Policy Counsel Elisabeth Ryan dismissing gun makers’ concerns, saying, “Basically, the argument has always been, ‘Well, we’re not responsible for the criminal. When somebody else takes a gun and uses it criminally, that has nothing to do with us.’ And this…[legislation] is saying, ‘No, it does have something to do with you, because if you contribute to getting it there unlawfully, then you can be held responsible for that.’”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at [email protected].
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