Court Won't Block Suit Against Gun Makers
Here's another story that should be under stupid news.Yes, I'm pro gun. I grew up with guns and my dad taught me gun safety before I was allowed to fire my first gun. I was really young at the time too. Plus, he made sure he was there to make sure I didn't goof up.
In my opinion, if you hold gun makers accountable for what some idiot or criminal does with the gun, you will have to hold car makers accountable for drunk drivers, car chases or when someone drives their car into a crowd of people like what happened in Las Vegas and Reno Nevada.
The fact of the matter is that the gun is a simple inanimate object. No decent gun when properly maintained will explode or fire while laying on the table or in a gun safe. As a matter of fact, some guns have triple safety built in.
I can understand that people want to feel safer and be free of gun crime but the fact is that it isn't the gun that harms people it's the person who pulls the trigger. If you want to feel safer, ban EVERY object that can be used to harm another person. This includes cars, knives, swords, bats, sticks, rocks, book ends, ink pens, hammers, screw drivers and the list goes on and on. Look around your home and see how many things can be used to harm or kill a human being and don't just think about normal weapons, think outside the box and ask yourself what could possibly be used to harm another human being.
According to an article I found, there were about 17000 gun deaths (including 8500 suicide and 3000 criminals shot by the public and police) and 42000 auto deaths during the same period. Kinda makes you think doesn't it?
iWon News
Oct 3, 9:42 PM (ET)
By GINA HOLLAND
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court refused Monday to block a lawsuit against gun manufacturers accused of negligence for firearms violence in the nation's capital.
An appeals court had said the District of Columbia government and individual gun victims - including a man who was left a quadriplegic after being shot in 1997 - could sue under a D.C. law that says gun manufacturers can be held accountable for violence from assault weapons.
The high court had been asked over the summer to use the case to strike down the statute, which gun makers said interfered with their right to sell lawful products.
The lawsuit still could be voided by a new federal law, however. The Senate voted in July to shield firearms manufacturers, dealers and importers from lawsuits brought by victims of gun crimes. Action is pending in the House.
The District of Columbia has strict rules about gun possession, and justices had been told that its law interfered with the gun commerce in other states. Twelve states had urged the Supreme Court to hear the case and rule with gun makers: Alabama, Colorado, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and West Virginia.
"The District of Columbia's statute threatens ... gun manufacturers with draconian penalties based on their lawful out-of-state commercial activity - and on the criminal misconduct of third parties over whom the manufacturers have no control," justices were told in a filing by former Solicitor General Theodore Olson, who is now the lawyer for the gun companies.
The case does not involve the Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms." Instead, it challenges the law under the Commerce Clause's ban on "direct regulation" of out-of-state commerce and on the due process clause.
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals had ruled last spring in the case against Beretta USA Corp., Smith & Wesson Corp., Colt's Manufacturing Co., Glock Inc., and other companies.
"No due process issue is raised by legislation that seeks to redress injuries suffered by district residents and visitors resulting from the manufacture and distribution of a particular class of firearms whose lethal nature far outweighs their utility," Judge Michael Farrell wrote.
The case is Beretta v. District of Columbia, 05-118.
posted by Brian @ 11:59 AM
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