Corporate Lawyers Can’t Tell the Truth about Gun Laws
via NRA-ILA
The newly formed anti-gun Firearms Accountability Counsel Task Force was featured in a National Public Radio interview with attorney Mike Schissel of Arnold & Porter, one of the big corporate law firms that has joined together with other firms to provide free legal services to anti-gun groups. Mr. Schissel openly bragged about the “collective talent and collective manpower” of his group and that “the brute force of the major law firms in this country” would use “novel and aggressive thinking … to put a full-court press on the gun lobby.”
This “novel and aggressive thinking” clearly does not involve telling the truth about the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), since Mr. Schissel claimed “There’s no other law – no other law at all – that shields consumer products from safety regulation.” He further alleged that “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.”
Unfortunately for Mr. Schissel, literally every part of his claim is untrue. The firearms industry is not the only industry to enjoy the type of protection the PLCAA affords, and it most certainly does not provide blanket immunity from lawsuits. Any honest lawyer would also understand that it is a federal crime to knowingly sell a firearm to a criminal. There is no law which can immunize against this action in such cases.
The truth is that gun manufacturers have been found liable for defective firearms and gun dealers have been held both criminally and civilly liable for selling guns to prohibited persons. While spurious claims like the Connecticut suit against Remington Arms and the Brady Campaign’s lawsuit against Lucky Gunner were dismissed, Badger Arms was found liable for selling guns to an obvious straw purchaser – a case Brady Campaign attorneys were forced to leave after violating Wisconsin Supreme Court rules on pretrial publicity.
The truth about the PLCAA cannot be clearer. It was passed after anti-gun activists partnered with big-firm plaintiffs’ lawyers, big-city mayors, and the Clinton administration to bring an avalanche of lawsuits against the firearm industry and force them to either settle or go bankrupt from legal fees. The PLCAA only prohibits lawsuits for injuries “resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse” of firearms – the same way that car manufacturers and auto dealerships are not liable for injuries caused by drunk drivers.
Schissel’s other “novel and aggressive” strategy is to claim that state carry laws infringe on the rights of private property owners because they have to post “No Gun” signs to exclude people who are legally carrying a concealed firearm. Following this line of reasoning, business owners must be equally burdened by having to post signs to exclude other legal activity – like “No Smoking,” “No Pets,” and “No Shirt-No Shoes-No Service.” It is laughable to think that the effort to post these signs is so terrible and onerous that it can only be remedied by the courts. Continue reading
Gear Up for SHOT Show 2017 with GunLink
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) annual Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show) is just around the corner and, as usual, the GunLink team will be there to cover it all. From the opening shots of the pre-show Industry Day at the Range through the last booth of the show floor, be sure to follow our coverage on our family of websites and social media outlets.
Join the discussion on the GunLink Forums in the 2017 Industry Day at the Range thread and in the 2017 SHOT Show thread. For more in-depth coverage, reviews and more, stay right here on the GunLink Blog. If instant gratification and up-to-the-second updates, photos, and reports from the range (as if there was cell service out in the desert) and SHOT Show floor is what you are looking for, find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Don’t forget that you can use all of these avenues to connect with us to let us know what type of shooting and firearms news you want to see covered from the show. Continue reading
The Wild West of Shooting Sports – Cowboy Action Shooting
Sure, sporting clays might be in the Olympics, 3-Gun matches may have made their way into televised sports via 3GN, and all levels of shooters may compete on the weekends in IDPA, USPSA, and IPSC matches, but those aren’t the only names in the game. The shooting sports game, that is.
Practical shooting competitions generally have real-world applications that can be carried into our concealed carry, home defense, and general self defense routines. Skeet, Trap, and Sporting Clays help sharpen skills that will carry over into the field for the scattergun hunter. Three-gun matches certainly showcase some amazing shooting abilities with a variety of defensive tools. Do you think that you could perform similar feats of shooting prowess? While riding a galloping horse at full speed? With a single-action firearm?
That is exactly what participants in the sports of Cowboy Action Shooting (CAS) do as they carry on the traditions of the Old West. Continue reading
How Silencers Work: A Closer Look at Gun Mufflers
With Silencers About to be Available Over the Counter (Fingers Crossed), Let’s Take a Closer Look at How They Work.
The American people spoke loud and clear last Tuesday when they elected the Republican candidate to the highest political office in the United States in addition as well as holding Republican majorities in both the US House and Senate. The same sentiment echoed across the country, such as in Kentucky, where voters not only flipped the state’s House of Representatives to a Republican majority for the first time in nearly 100 years, but they did it by a landslide 64-35 margin.
Regardless of how many might feel about various positions held by various candidates, it appears that American gun owners are in for what we hope is a good (at least) four year stretch. A major part of President-Elect Trump’s platform was his strong support for Second Amendment Rights. Given the list of pro-RKBA politicians and industry insiders that he has already named to his Second Amendment Coalition, chances are good that we may see some positive movement in the arena of existing and future firearms legislation.
One example of such positive movement is the renewed possibility for passage of the Hearing Protection Act – NRA-backed legislation which would remove silencers (a/k/a suppressors) from the purview of the National Firearms Act (NFA). This was even the ostensible goal of the American Suppressor Association‘s foundation and one that they are still working hard toward. Until the Hearing Protection Act is passed, silencers are still available and legal to own in most states, albeit with the additional hurdles imposed by the recently adopted (and, hopefully, soon to be abolished) ATF Rule 41F.
With dreams of over-the-counter suppressor availability via just a 4473 and NICS background check (and no $200 tax stamp or year-long wait) just on the horizon, let’s take a look at how suppressors work Continue reading
U.S. Attorney’s Office and ATF Announce $500,000 Project Safe Neighborhoods Federal Grant
John Parker, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, and William Temple, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Dallas Field Division, joined Ken Shetter, President of One Safe Place, and Joel Fitzgerald, Fort Worth Chief of Police, at a press conference this morning to announce a $500,000 federal grant that has been awarded to One Safe Place to implement the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative in two Fort Worth neighborhoods.
PSN is a nationwide commitment to reduce gang and gun crime in the U.S. by networking existing local programs that target gun and gang crime and providing these programs with additional tools for success. PSN’s strategic approach brings more “science” into criminal justice operations by leveraging innovative applications of analysis, technology and evidence-based practices to improve performance and effectiveness while containing costs.
The grant is one of only seven half-million dollar grants awarded by the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Assistance and funded under the 2016 Violent Gang and Gun Crime Reduction/Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative. This grant also addresses domestic violence, which, according to many statistics, is a major contributing factor for the increase in gun and violent crimes. Continue reading
SAF, CCRKBA Congratulate President-Elect Trump and Gun Owners Who Made Victory Possible
In a joint statement, the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms congratulated the nation’s gun owners for making possible Tuesday’s victory that will send Donald J. Trump to the White House in 2017.
SAF and CCRKBA also offer their sincere congratulations to President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence for their historic and stunning victory, and especially for Mr. Trump’s gracious call for unity among all Americans.
“What happened Tuesday night was a reaffirmation that Americans can make the system work, and that this nation’s gun owners are a cornerstone of that system,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “It cannot be ignored that this nation’s tens of millions of honest firearms owners turned out to protect their constitutional rights. From the outset, Mr. Trump made it clear that the Second Amendment will be safe on his watch.
“While America’s hard-working gun owners can celebrate the victory they helped make possible,” added Gottlieb, who also chairs the CCRKBA, “we must remain mindful that the gun prohibition lobby, which is largely funded by elitist billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, will almost certainly double down on their efforts to erode our Second Amendment rights at the state level, whenever and wherever they can.
“Every gun owner owes a huge ‘Thank You’ to our good friends at the National Rifle Association for their efforts and expenditures to educate and guide voters,” Gottlieb noted.
