My take on the "gun manufacturer" liability argument.

[NutmegYankee]

18. There have always been large numbers of Democrats who are "pro-gun".

It's a key reason the admins have never banned them. Guns are an urban/rural culture war item that is one of the unusual positions taken by some left leaning people - normally the party of the left supports strengthening individual liberty over the demands of social order, which tended to serve religious or moral viewpoints. Leaving guns in the hands of the common people is a classic leftwing political theory - power to the people. Stripping them from the common person and allowing only the wealthy and well connected to own guns is a classic rightwing political theory. There is a reason it was the Rightwing government in Australia that got their laws changed.

Guns have been associated with the rightwing in US politics in the last few decades only because the parties have aligned somewhat on the urban/rural divide and many rural people view the right to own guns as an example where the little people, otherwise powerless and exploited, are empowered and trusted by the government. Take away that trust and power, and they are just the poor worthless people that urban society ascribes to them.