Since President Joe Biden and his merry band of anti-gunner Democrats have been unable to pass significant legislation restricting the right to keep and bear arms, they have been forced to resort to alternative means to make it harder for people to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
Through the ATF, the White House has managed to impose heavier restrictions on gun ownership. However, Democrats have also been trying to curb gun ownership by targeting the gun industry itself under the guise of promoting public safety.
A Maryland state law went into effect on June 1 that empowers the attorney general and lawyers representing counties and the city of Baltimore to file lawsuits against gun sellers and manufacturers.
A state law due to take effect June 1 gives the Maryland attorney general and lawyers representing counties and Baltimore City the ability to sue firearm industry members if they knowingly harm the public by selling, manufacturing, distributing, importing, or marketing a firearm-related product in an “unlawful” or “unreasonable” manner.
Eight other states have already enacted similar laws. Among them, New Jersey’s bears the greatest similarity to Maryland’s new law, according to David Pucino, legal director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Pucino highlighted two cases in New Jersey as examples of how Maryland’s law will likely play out. In one, the defendant is a company that sells products related to ghost guns, which lack serial numbers and are illegal in New Jersey, as well as in Maryland.
“There was a company that was selling ghost guns, not in New Jersey, but in Pennsylvania, knowing very well that those guns were going to be immediately trafficked across the border into New Jersey and then used in crime in New Jersey,” Pucino said.
This measure is similar to laws passed in other states aimed at targeting gun companies. Washington state imposed a measure that was recently upheld by a federal judge that allows potential lawsuits against gun companies if their products are used in a crime. Currently, the Mexican government is pushing a lawsuit against American gun manufacturers, blaming them for rampant gun violence south of the border. The case is currently set to be considered by the Supreme Court.
Maryland’s law is not only unfair, it is also unnecessary. The notion that gun sellers and manufacturers should be held liable for how someone chooses to use their product is absurd on its face. Mark Pennak, president of a gun rights group called Maryland Shall Issue, slammed the law for being too vague.
“You see some cases being brought where the allegation is that the retailer should have known and should have trained his employees to recognize that this particular purchase, although passing a background check and otherwise was a legal purchase, we should have known that this person was going to use the firearm for illegal purpose,” Pennak said. “That's insane. No one can possibly abide by that.”
Donna Worthy, a local gun store owner, pointed out that “There’s already [laws] in place to get rid of the bad actors” and noted that the bill “goes after everybody, the good and the bad.”
As with almost all other gun laws, Maryland’s measure is intended to make it appear as if the state is doing something to address gun violence when it is actually failing at curbing violent crime. However, the law can and will be used to target the gun rights of law-abiding folks, which is likely the actual intent of the legislation. If gun companies can possibly be held liable if a criminal uses their firearms to commit a crime, then it will have a chilling effect on those selling guns and those seeking to buy them.
