Lawsuit Preemption Remains Top Priority

As we reported in last week’s Grassroots Alert (Vol. 10, No. 3), the gun-ban lobby continues to try to advance its agenda of driving law-abiding gun manufacturers out of business with a campaign of promoting predatory lawsuits. These suits, primarily filed by anti-gun big city mayors working in collusion with the gun-ban lobby, have consistently been thrown out of courts, and eight have already met their certain demise through either final judgement, legislative prohibition, or the litigants simply abandoning their frivolous campaign in the face of certain defeat.

But while the losses continue to mount for the ridiculous argument that law-abiding gun makers should be held responsible for the criminal misuse of their lawful products, the firearms and ammunition industry will continue to bear the crushing financial burden of having to defend itself against these predatory lawsuits as long as this reckless abuse of the courts is allowed to continue. For this reason, one of NRA’s top priorities during this congressional session will be the passage of federal legislation that will prohibit these junk lawsuits. We had tremendous success last year gaining support for bills in the House and the Senate, but time ran out before either could be given full consideration. The House bill (H.R. 2037) ended up with 231 cosponsors, more than a majority of congressmen, while the Senate’s version (S. 2268) ended up with 46 cosponsors, which is almost a majority. Although no legislation has been introduced to date, it is still early in the session, and NRA is working with our friends in Congress to ensure that bills are introduced in each chamber as early as possible. Thirty states have enacted similar legislation.

Please contact your U.S. Representative and both of your U.S. Senators and urge them to support and cosponsor federal reckless lawsuit preemption legislation that will bring an end to this unwarranted harassment of law-abiding gun manufacturers. You can reach your U.S. Representative by calling (202) 225-3121, and your U.S. Senators by calling (202) 224-3121. For additional contact information, use our "Write Your Representatives" tool on the right by entering your zip code and clicking "GO".