When companies and organization hide information that leads to deaths, injuries and illnesses of the American people, they are no longer protected by law.
...provide for (click here) the common defense and general welfare of the United States...
April 8, 2019By Rick Rojas and Kristin Hussey
Documents (click here) proved there were cover-ups: The industry knew about the dangers, but hid facts from consumers, and millions of pages described false advertising and suppressed scientific research. The details, once surfaced, not only revealed wrongdoing but changed public perception.
Lawsuits against cigarette manufacturers exposed crucial confidential records and completely transformed the tobacco industry.
Now, families of the victims from the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School hope to replicate the tactic: using litigation as a means to pry open the gun industry, employing the discovery process to unearth internal communications and examine the practices behind marketing and selling powerful firearms like the one used in the attack.
“We can find out what the Remington defendants have tried every step of the way to block in discovery,” said David Wheeler, whose 6-year-old son, Ben, died at Sandy Hook, about the gun maker that was among the companies named in the lawsuit...
March 14, 2019
By Rick Rojas and Kristin Hussey
The Connecticut Supreme Court (click here) dealt a major blow to the firearms industry on Thursday, clearing the way for a lawsuit against the companies that manufactured and sold the semiautomatic rifle used by the gunman in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The lawsuit mounted a direct challenge to the immunity that Congress granted gun companies to shield them from litigation when their weapons are used in a crime. The ruling allows the case, brought by victims’ families, to maneuver around the federal shield, creating a potential opening to bring claims to trial and hold the companies, including Remington, which made the rifle, liable for the attack.
The decision represents a significant development in the long-running battle between gun control advocates and the gun lobby. And it stands to have wider ramifications, experts said, by charting a possible legal road map for victims’ relatives and survivors from other mass shootings who want to sue gun companies....
2005 was a good year for Cheney extremism. The national energy plan was passed that would allow the petroleum industry to ravage American lands causing seismic activity, polluted drinking water and American deaths and so was protections for gun sales.
February 5, 2013
By Adam Schiff
...In 2005, (click here) when Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, granting the gun industry immunity in state and federal court from civil liability in most negligence and products liability actions, the National Rifle Assn. called passage "vitally important" and fought hard for it. Although there are exceptions in the law, it has been broadly interpreted to preclude most negligence lawsuits. The result is that — unlike the makers of chain saws, knives, automobiles, drugs, alcohol or even cigarettes — gun manufacturers and sellers have a lesser obligation to act with reasonable care for public safety....
The practice of cronyism. The citizen gun industry has absolutely no place as a national security issue, if anything, it causes problems with national security. The only reason this legislation passed is because Republicans benefit from protecting those that give them money to stay in office.
`Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act' text (click here)
