Brady Center Leads Challenge to Arms Act that Protects Firearms Industry [View all]

[jpak]

http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/gun-shots/2012/08/brady-center-leads-challenge-arms-act-protects-firearms-manufacturers

The federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a 2005 law that protects the gun industry from liability lawsuits by gun-grabbers, has been challenged in Alaska in a case that may give gun-control activists a chance to test the law before the U.S. Supreme Court, according to an analysis by Andrew Longstreth published by Reuters on August 9.

At issue is whether a Juneau gun dealer is liable for letting a homeless felon leave his store with a rifle, which he used to murder a total stranger two days later. The family of the murder victim, Anchorage contractor Simone Kim -- and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence -- filed a wrongful death lawsuit that has made it to the Alaska Supreme Court.

The Kims are challenging the constitutionality of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects the gun industry from most lawsuits. "It's a very important case. This is the first state Supreme Court that will be deciding the breadth of the law as it applies to gun dealers who supply criminals with guns and profit from that," said Jonathan Lowy, an attorney with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, D.C., who is co-counsel for the Kims.

On August 2, 2006, Jason Coday, a drifter originally from Vernal, Utah, with a lengthy arrest record, left a Juneau gun store carrying a Ruger .22 rifle. Two days later, he used the gun to kill Simone Kim, a 26-year-old contract painter in downtown Juneau. Coday was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges and sentenced to 101 years in prison.

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