Adding (expensive) insult to injury

There isn’t a law abiding gun owner alive who doesn’t feel for the parents of the children murdered at Sandy Hook elementary. On that horrible day, Adam Lanza used an illegally obtained firearm to commit an act of indescribable evil.

But let’s repeat that: Adam Lanza committed the crime.

No other person bears the responsibility for Lanza’s crime. Not you. Not me. And certainly not the Remington Arms Company. And just as you or I could not be made to pay for Lanza’s crimes, Congress made certain that lawful manufacturers of firearms could not be held liable for the evil acts of others.

But no matter what the Empress Dowager may want you to believe, Congress did not grant the firearms industry blanket immunity for any and all liability. They’re still liable for defective products, for example. What they are not liable for are the acts of others. No one, whether an individual or a company, should ever be made to answer for the crimes of another. Any other position is grossly unjust. It’s a pity that Congress had to pass a law to stop some States and cities from attempting to do just that to gun manufacturers.

However clear the law may be, anti-gun extremists are still attempting to exploit tragedy in violation of the law. They’ve tricked some of the parents of the children killed at Sandy Hook into filing just the type of lawsuit the PLCAA forbids. This is a suit doomed to failure. None of the claims made by the parents are based upon the PLCAA’s explicit exceptions. Instead, they’re based on the same flawed arguments that the PLCAA was crafted to halt. Ultimately, Remington will prevail. The parents will lose. But it won’t stop there. They will be forced to pay Remington’s legal bills.

And it just got worse for them.

A Connecticut judge decided to make a political statement rather than rule on a point of law. Instead of dismissing the suit, with relatively minimal costs for the parents, Judge Barbara Bellis has decided to let the case more forward. And the further it progresses, the more legal bills will pile up.

The anti-gun extremists who pushed the case are celebrating, of course. But then again, they won’t have to pay the bills when this is all over. Neither will Judge Bellis, nor will the Empress Dowager. Only parents who have already lost children will be forced to pay for this judge’s actions.