Parents of Sandy Hook victims planning lawsuit against gunmaker Bushmaster

[branford]

96. This case will go nowhere fast.

If the suit is against the manufacturer as described in the article, it will be promptly dismissed under the PLCAA.

The case is simply meant to garner publicity, and then when inevitably dismissed, for the activists to use as a reason why the law should be changed. Given recent poor polling concerning public support for gun control, I expect such lobbying, particularly with a Republican controlled Congress, to be DOA.

As an attorney, unless I see some VERY novel pleading, the complaint appears entirely frivolous. If so, I hope the lawyers are appropriately sanctioned in an amount no less than the defendants legal fees. Courts are not the venue for such a crass political stunt.

In any event, even without the PLCAA, I do not see how the gun manufacturer is liable. The guns used by Lanza were not defectively designed or manufactured, they fully complied with CT's assault weapons ban standards and other applicable laws, were procured lawfully by his his mother in the normal course of commerce, and then intentionally used in a criminal manner, including Lanza's procuring the weapons through the murder of the lawful owner and purchaser, his mother.

The gun manufacturers and dealers should no more be liable for the criminal misuse of their products than car manufacturers and dealers would be liable if Lanza stole his mother's car and ran over the schoolchildren.