Protection of Lawful Commerce In Arms Act Signed into Law

On October 20th, as I worked diligently on this issue, two emails arrived in my inbox almost simultaneously. Both concerned the passage in the House of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (S.397), which had recently passed in the Senate. The first of these emails was from NRA Executive Vice President Wayne La Pierre, who said: "This is an historic victory for the NRA. Freedom, truth, and justice prevailed, and today S.397 is one step closer to becoming the law of the land.

No other industry is forced to defend [itself] when a violent criminal they do not know, have never met and cannot control, misuses a legal non-defective product. American firearms manufacturers will now receive the same fair treatment." La Pierre went on to say: "The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act seeks to end predatory and baseless lawsuits initiated nationwide by the gun-control lobby.

These lawsuits sought to bankrupt a lawful, highly regulated industry by holding the manufacturers and retailers responsible for the unforeseeable acts of criminals…. We area safer country today because Congress passed this critical legislation and acted to save American icons like Remington, Ruger, Winchester, and Smith & Wesson from politically motivated lawsuits.

Our men and women in uniform abroad and at home now will not have to rely on France, China, or Germany to supply their firearms." The other email was also a press release, this one from The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV).

According to Executive Director Joshua Horowitz: "This bill is based on a series of fabrications and half-truths, and its supporters have twisted the facts in an attempt to defend the indefensible—the idea that gun sellers should be shielded from the legal consequences of their own misconduct." And, speaking of fabrications and half-truths, Horowitz went on to say: "The fact is that, with earlier NRA-backed bills cutting the budget and gutting the legal authority for enforcement of the nation’s gun laws, private lawsuits are one of the few tools left to hold corrupt, negligent, and reckless gun sellers accountable for funneling guns to criminals." Thankfully, at the bottom of the CSGV’s press release was a link to "unsubscribe" from the Coalition’s distribution list, which—I can assure you—I never subscribed to in the first place.

As you no doubt know by now, President Bush subsequently signed S.397 into law a few days later. Now, if Congress and the President could only do something about unsubscribing me from all those other email lists I never subscribed to…. Editor Keith Lawrence Technical