Why shouldnt the gun industry be liable for damage done by its products, just like anybody else?

[Jim Lane]

14. Your statement of products liability law is not accurate.

To be fair, no tweet-sized statement could be accurate. I've litigated products cases (mostly for injured victims but once for a manufacturer of machinery) and it is my view that what you've written is so oversimplified as to be uninformative.

Without my giving you a complete treatise on products liability -- and there are entire books on the subject -- I invite you to consider the example of automobiles, referred to in other posts in this thread. An automobile is a dangerous product. (Proof: Thousands of people are killed every year by automobiles.) All this invective about the PLCAA doesn't change the fundamental point that a manufacturer's liability is basically the same, whether the product is guns or automobiles. The manufacturer can be held liable for a defect in the design or manufacture of the product if the defect causes death or injury. The manufacturer cannot be held liable if the death or injury occurs because someone else negligently or intentionally uses the product in a way that causes the death or injury.

One of the Nazis in Charlottesville used his car to murder Heather Heyer. Should the manufacturer of the car be held liable?