Joe Biden Angry
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Biden administration is zeroing in on repealing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) and White House officials are enlisting help from antigun state lawmakers to do it.

The White House released a readout of a meeting held by Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Senior Advisor to the President and White House Intergovernmental Affairs Director, with other White House officials and 10 state lawmakers from New York, Delaware, California and Illinois. The meeting was “to discuss how states are leading the way in efforts to hold gun manufacturers accountable.”

The Biden administration is putting full efforts behind states to do all they can to undermine, challenge and work to repeal the PLCAA. That’s the bipartisan federal law that prevents frivolous lawsuits against members of the firearm industry for the criminal and unlawful misuse by remote third parties of lawfully sold firearms.

California Dreaming

The meeting came on the same day California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a state law to allow private citizens to bring lawsuits against modern sporting rifle (MSR) and privately-made firearm manufacturers and retailers anywhere in the country.

“It’s time to put them on the defense,” Gov. Newsom said. “You cannot sell, you cannot manufacture, you cannot transfer these illegal weapons of war and mass destruction in the state of California. And if you do, there are 40 million people that can collect $10,000 from you, and attorney fees, for engaging in that illegal activity.”

Gov. Newsom’s law was drafted in reaction to a Texas law that allows private parties to sue over abortion. His assertions that MSRs and privately-made firearms are “illegal weapons of war” is dubious at best.

California’s ban on MSR sales to adults under 21 was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in May. The U.S. Supreme Court sent back to the Ninth Circuit a case challenging California’s standard capacity magazine ban for “GVR” – or for grant, vacate, and remand – following the Bruen decision that struck down lower courts’ use of the unconstitutional application of the “interest-bearing” test.

New York State of Mind

California isn’t alone in passing laws to drag firearm manufacturers into court. New York’s disgraced former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a similar law earlier this year. NSSF is challenging that law.

Of course, Cuomo is also the one who infamously promoted these lawsuits against the industry in 1990s as a “death through a thousand cuts” when he was part of the Clinton administration. Delaware’s Democratic Gov. John Carney signed a similar law, bowing to pressure to support the White House as President Joe Biden’s home state.

This is no surprise. President Biden called firearm manufacturers “the enemy” from the debate stage during his White House run. He’s also repeatedly been called out for spreading lies about what PLCAA does and doesn’t do.

Joe Biden Angry
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The PLCAA simply codifies basic tort law. Prior to the law being signed in 2005, there were dozens of politically motivated junk lawsuits chiefly filed by an unholy alliance of mayors from crime ridden cities, lawyers from Handgun Control Inc., rebranded the Brady Center, and greedy trial lawyers.

The PLCAA largely put a stop to these junk lawsuits that sought to bankrupt the industry, blaming us for their failure to stop crime. Gun control zealots continue to file lawsuits to challenge the PLCAA that has even been defended as Constitutional by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

It’s worth noting that nothing in the White House’s discussions about accountability for crimes committed with firearms involves actually holding criminals accountable. That’s telling when the U.S. Sentencing Commission just released a report that showed nearly 90 percent of convicted felons that illegally used a firearm were already prohibited from possessing one in the first place. None of these proposals or state laws actually enforces the law to protect communities from criminals.

This is political blame-shifting and scapegoating. The PLCAA isn’t the obstacle. The White House’s distaste for the law shows that it isn’t the law they don’t like. It’s the Constitution.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

54 COMMENTS

  1. Of course criminals are ”accountable” for crime. It’s so elfin obvious that it does NOT need to be stated to anyone with half a working brain cell. To even THINK that it needs stating is indicative of crass idiocy . Talk about Double Think! It’s statements like that that surely puts the Gun Lobby up to ridicule and there’s nothing like ridicule to kill an organisation.

    • Then you better spell it out to the dems. They’re the ones with trouble holding criminals accountable.

      Them and their flunkies like you, dacian.

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    • Seems that at the local level, prosecutors are busy redefining crime to where the bar of being held accountable keeps shifting upwards. Violent criminals are routinely being let out on their own recognizance, only to immediately commit more crimes. So perhaps what you seem to think is obvious, actually isn’t universally obvious. Perhaps it is Progressive crass idiocy that needs ridicule.

    • The point is that these laws do not target the actual perpetrator, but instead the gun industry for providing “weapons of war” or “ghost guns” that are subsequently used in a crime.

    • Albert the Wanking Poofter of a Subject,

      And your idiot, fact-free rant was in aid of WHAT, exactly???? Are the firearms manufacturers engaging in “criminal behavior”???? No, no they are not. Are CRIMINALS engaging in criminal behavior?? Why, yes, yes they are – that’s kinda why we call them CRIMINALS, you idiot f***tard of a Limey ponce. And who is letting those SELF-DEMONSTRATED “criminals” out of jail on little or no bail??? Oh, that would be Leftist/fascists, such as yourself.

      We know you are NOT a “firearms instructor”, as you have often claimed, because your every comment proves your TOTAL ignorance about firearms. I refuse to believe that even the degraded joke that is the British military would permit an “instructor” as ignorant as you. You also seem to be unaware that British law in re: abortion is more restrictive than any US law currently in existence.

      So, do you want to explain to us WHY you are such a pathetic liar, admit that you are NOT a “firearms instructor”, and admit that you are a sock puppet and are not even, in fact, British at all???? Or do you just intend to keep lying????

      F*** off, you sodding wanker.

  2. “signed a state law to allow private citizens to bring lawsuits against modern sporting rifle (MSR) and privately-made firearm manufacturers and retailers anywhere in the country.”

    They have always had that ability, when the firearms manufacturer was knowingly neglectful. Its never been true that the firearms manufacturers could not be sued.

    What these idiots want to do is hold manufacturers responsible for actions of others.

    I guess we should be able to sue Ford if a drunk driver driving a Ford causes a death in a car crash the drunk driver caused.

    • Wouldn’t this then set a precedent for automobile manufacturers to get sued for the misuse of their products, along with the dealer, and every subsequent owner?

      Dacian, stop that fapping. It will stunt your growth and make you an imbecile, wait… never mind.

      • “Wouldn’t this then set a precedent for automobile manufacturers to get sued for the misuse of their products, along with the dealer, and every subsequent owner?”

        That’s the right question to ask when laws like that come up for debate.

        On the whole, alcohol manufacturers aren’t held legally liable for drunk driving crashes, and tableware companies (forks, spoons, and knives) aren’t held legally liable for obesity.

        It’s the fault of whoever drank the alcohol and decided to drive, or put the fork in their fat mouth and then swallowed that’s responsible for drunk driving crashes or obesity… 🙁

        • “It’s the fault of whoever drank the alcohol and decided to drive,…”

          “Dram” laws seem to have shifted that a bit. The provider of alcoholic beverages can be held accountable for allowing someone to drive drunk.

  3. We are at war right now. Do you reckon when the chicoms invade they will sell us guns and ammunition to fight with? If we run all the gunmakers out of business how do we arm the military? Don’t you think they will do the same thing this November as in 2020? Albert no one gives a rat’s ass what you do in Europe!

    • The military? They have purged all those who refused the jab, and then purged all those posting non leftist statements on their social media. If the Chinese invade then our military will join them. More likely the Chinese won’t bother invading since Sniffin’ Joe and the Ho are in their pocket. They will just use what remains of our woke trans military against us. That’s why they don’t want us to have guns.

      They will eliminate all but one manufacturer. The government will nationalize that manufacturer. That one manufacturer will produce solely for the police and military. Police and military are always exempt from gun laws.

    • “We are at war right now. Do you reckon when the chicoms invade they will sell us guns and ammunition to fight with?”

      What rock have you been hiding under?

      In the 1980s, the ChiComs sold *millions* of SKS rifles and literally cargo ships *full* of inexpensive ammunition to the gun distributors who then sold it to American shooters…

  4. the biden admin is criminal. hunter ‘sells’ paintings as a way to hide bribes. joe encourages the mob to terrorize scotus justices. joe encourages the states to violate civil rights. joe allows a foreign invasion at our southern border. He oversees the destruction of our economy.

    But its all Trumps fault.

    • Well, yeah. I mean, isn’t it obvious??? Fascism in the service of Leftism is “good” fascism (c.f., Antifa). Fascism in the service of right-of-center causes??? That’s HITLER/GOEBBELS/FIDEL/THIRD REICH REBORN!!!! (notice they never mention Stalin or Mao in these rants??). Their fascism if “good” fascism; anything that THEY even ALLEGE is fascist (which it seldom is) in support of conservative policies is BAD fascism. Dude, you need to learn Leftist speak.

  5. The left has always had a problem with definitions, they are so constricting and these Communists want words to mean what they want them to mean now rather than some pre-agreed upon fixed meaning. That is why they are so predatory toward children and cover it up with the pretense of “compassion.” That is why woman is a state of mind rather than a biological binary fact or why they insist that a man can become pregnant. That is why they have always wanted to pretend the Constitution has a pulse and respiration. Are they insane? Not in the classical sense. Are they evil? Many of them, though some are just willing to put their morals conveniently in their wallet, and most of them are simply not very smart and are easily led by people they think are well-meaning.

    • “The left has always had a problem with definitions, they are so constricting and these Communists want words to mean what they want them to mean now rather than some pre-agreed upon fixed meaning.”

      They want a ‘Living Constitution’, that they can change anytime they want to suit their needs.

      Here is a recording of Obama complaining about the Constitution :

      “…that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. [It] says what the states can’t do to you. [It] says what the federal government can’t do to you, but [it] doesn’t say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf.”

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqyY6ax3hc0

  6. If the government no longer feels that it must obey the law, then why should we?

  7. Be nice if they’d expend that much time, money and energy doing what they were sent there to do, eh??

  8. Wang Chung is the only Chinese word I know Mr. Biden , I’ll do my best to learn more in your school of indoctrination.
    Make America Great Again.

  9. If California doesn’t want them sold or manufactured there…THEN DONT!

    100% total ban to that state. Absolutely ZERO transfers if ANY kind across the board.

    NO EXCEPTIONS!!!

    ALL makers of any kind of firearms related ANYTHING, get out of California. Do it now and don’t look back.

  10. Have any of you seen the latest Dodge tv commercials? They are deliberately marketing high powered cars to reckless idiots. Anyone that gets hit by a Dodge should be suing the hell out of them.

      • possum,

        Gotta take issue with that – just like “accidental” discharges are rare to non-existent, “car accidents” are rare to non-existent. If you are driving drunk and get into a collision with another car, is that “accidental”, or negligent?? If you are going 65 in a 40 mph zone and have a collision, is that “accidental”. As my handgun instructor used to say, “There is no such thing as an ‘accidental discharge’, there are just stupid, negligent idiots who thought they were smarter than Jeff Cooper!”

      • …or illegal Chinese drugs crossing the “closed” Southern border. Car accidents or Defective Citizens using guns to kill shoppers/school kiddies, aren’t even in the same magnitude as drug deaths.

        • Chinese triad gangs are working with the Mexican cartels in a grey war against the US.

          The the triads have the full backing of the CCP. The fruit does not fall far from the tree.

  11. for this to work
    mass shootings must continue to happen
    are you picking up
    what im laying down

    • Ala….”the beatings will continue until morale improves”….so will the mass shootings continue until the Useful Idiots are convinced that citizens must not have guns….only the police and government thugs may be armed…..ala Germany, Russia, Venezuela, China, Cambodia, Cuba style. Anyone revisited the carnage in the streets under those regimes???? Anyone taking note how all the mass shooters are well know to the Alphabet Boys? Befriend, Instruct, arm, nudge at the opportune time…..in multiples for maximum Useful Idiot horror. History…..learn from it; be doomed to re-live it; or, die from it.

  12. The California law being touted is actually pretty weak sauce. First of all, it does not apply to ALL MSRs, only those that fit the (ever changing) definition of an “assault weapon” under California law and to “ghost guns, i.e. guns that have no serial numbers. [You can build a gun from an 80%receiver and parts, but must engrave the receiver with a CalDOJ issued serial number prior to starting the build.] Importantly, in a state where all firearms transactions must be performed by an FFL, there is not an FFL in the state that will sell or transfer a firearm falling within categories of firearms that are already illegal under existing law. So all that this law targets are illegal gun transactions and illegal guns. TO PUT IT BLUNTLY, IT IS NOTHING BUT AN ELECTION SEASON PUBLICITY STUNT. This particular does not attack the PLCAA–although the nuisance law Noisome signed does.

  13. In California, if police “buy backs” result in the transfer of banned weapons, should not any private citizen in the state then be able to sue the police and/or other sponsors of said event?

  14. The only logical solution to this government assault is that small arms manufactuerers should refuse to bid or service governement purchases and any manufacturer or distributor who still sells to government should be boycotted mercilessly by general consumer.

    The first quick step by manufacturers would be to refuse to repair returned government pieces.

    • Eh, someone like Biden would just use the Defense Production Act of 1950 to force the contracts onto the manufacturers.

      Sure, that’s slavery and a form of rape but it’s not like anyone’s gonna stop the demented old fuck, so who cares?

  15. Grrrrr….the 3rd party moderation of this forum is infuruiating when there was not a hint of foul language or violence in my last post.

  16. As in holding firearm industry members liable for the crimes of mass shooters, maybe current politicians should be held liable for the atrocities of Stalin, Lenin, Pol Pot, Hitler, Amin, Chavez, Castro, Mao, et el. get a rope, Boys and Girls…..or a pike.

  17. The most interesting attempt to change the political structure of the nation, is the move afoot to introduce, via simple legislation, term limits for federal judges, especially the Supreme Court. Simple legislation, not an amendment to the Constitution. The effort follows the claim that politicians can “codify” abortion via simple legislation. In both cases, the Dims seem to believe their legislative attempts cannot be overturned via the courts.

    *codify: make permanent through simple legislation.

  18. Thank you to the gun owners with Trump derangement syndrome and the drug legalization crowd. Because Donald Trump is never going to legalize your drugs. He watched drugs destroy his older brother. So he has a different point of view than you do.

    But you will get your wish. Chuck Schumer is readying a bill to legalize your drugs. So you will still be able to continue to vote Democrat.

    • hey wow man yeah like cool on drugs uh yeah more drugs man not voting drugs yeah uh voting is like doing stuff man thats like like work man and like deciding stuff man not cool man

  19. Substitute the word “gun makers” for “vaccine makers/companies”, and suddenly, the O’Biden administration would grow strangely silent on the same issue of accountability, and consumers being able to sue someone into bankruptcy for damages done. Funny how that double standard works.

  20. Enterprising 2A orgs should go looking for a nice Commerce Clause test case.

    They won’t because they’re myopic and don’t see the connection. Perhaps, one day, critical thinking will return to the USA… but I doubt it.

    • “Enterprising 2A orgs should go looking for a nice Commerce Clause test case.”

      Could you kindly clarify a bit on that, please?

      • I’ve talked about this before. Most of this sort of thing rests on the Commerce Clause as interpreted in Wickard. The Feds rarely lose on that front, though it does occasionally happen. US v. Lopez (1995) being one occasion.

        The root of things here is that the Feds claim to have the authority to promulgate gun laws because of the Commerce Clause allowing them to regulate the interstate commerce in regards to firearms. That’s not the intent of the Commerce Clause. It was meant to prevent states from going after each other, interstate trade wars etc.

        If you get the court to basically overturn the interpretation presented in Wickard you go back to the 1941 interpretation where The New Deal was constantly losing under the quite obviously correct legal interpretation of “That’s not FedGov’s rightful place”.

        But with a 1941 interpretation you retain Fedgov’s place in preventing interstate lawfare where commerce is concerned.

        So, done right, a 1941 interpretation basically end-runs all your federal gun laws and at the same time cements the PLCAA as supreme so the states have an extremely high bar to get over in order to go after a gun manufacturer in another state. Feds want to encourage state nuisance lawsuits? Well, Congress can repeal the PLCAA then and we can have that fight.

        What you need here is the right test case. Maybe two. Done right you can forget about all the AWB and other nonsense from the Feds because in a huge percentage of cases they have lost the legal basis for regulating/promulgating laws about this subject in the first place.

        If you want to play this as a legal game, that’s the way I’d go about it. Most Lefties wouldn’t understand that they’re being flanked.

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