Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act

The Protection Of Lawful Commerce In Arms Act (PLCAA) was signed into law by George Bush on October 25, 2005. Rosa Parks had died the day before on the 24th and the world was waking to the headlines of her death, so they snuck this one in. The PLCAA protects firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held liable when crimes have been committed with their products. It doesn’t protect them if their product is defective. Let’s take look at the law. I’m walking down the street minding my own business when some bama pulls up on me, whips out a nine and tries to jack me for my gold chain. I smack his azz and knock the gun out of his hands. We get to rumbling. We throwing hands left and right. He gets me with a good one and knocks me down. He then grabs the gun and fires it at me. But due to a manufacturer’s defect, the gun explodes in his hand. He has the absolute right to sue the gun manufacture under PLCAA. On the other hand, he grabs the gun and shoots me in the shoulder, snatches my chain and then runs off. I can’t sue the manufacture just because he used their product in a way it wasn’t intended to be used. (More about this later.)

“All’s Fair In Love And War,” Depending On Who They Talking To

The earliest known origin of the quote, “all fair in love and war,” comes from a poet named John Lyly. Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit, was published in 1579, nearly four hundred and fifty years ago. Well things have not changed. The vote to send the PLCAA to the president’s desk was passed by the House of Representatives with 283 in favor and 144 opposed and in the Senate it was by a vote of 65–31, better than 2-1 in both houses. “All I can say is that it is deeply troubling to me go above and beyond politics that we have senate leadership which is more concerned about pleasing the NRA than listening to the vast majority of the American people, whether they’re Republicans, Democrats, or independents, And I would hope very much that we can overcome the fear of the NRA and do what the American people want.” – Bernie Sanders April 19, 2019. Guess who was one of the senators that voted for the PLCAA? Bernie says he has not changed his mind about the PLCAA, but would consider some modifications. Now who’s is afraid of the NRA? Joe Biden voted against it. The other democratic presidential contenders were not in the Senate or House when the bill was passed. That’s right, just call me NBC, the more you know.

Being Realistic

Okay you might ask is it really right to make the gun manufacturers responsible for what someone does with their product in a way that it was not intended to be used. As in the example used above, the gun manufactures did not make the gun so that the bama could rob me. Well lets just say I am calling it BS. The first gun was a primitive device made in China sometime around 1000 AD. It used gunpowder which the Chinese had discovered earlier, to shoot a spear through through a bamboo tube. Now I ain’t no scientist, but the only reason I can think of that you might want to fire a spear at someone using an explosion as the propellent, is to try and hurt or kill them. This, the first gun was made to hurt and kill. Every other gun that came after it was made for the same thing, to hurt or kill. Now it may against the law for you to hurt and kill someone with a gun, but if you do, you are using it for its intended purpose. So that leaky argument that gun advocates throw out there about the car or knife thing, doesn’t hold water. Oh, you haven’t heard about the car or knife thing? Well according to them they don’t need a gun to kill anybody, you can kill someone with a knife or a car or a bat, or even with a nasty spaghetti recipe. What are you going to do, take everyone’s car away? Well I always like to say, ” When was the last time you heard that “Duck” was in the club without his boys and had to pull out his Volvo?

 Negligent Entrustment

The Negligent Entrustment provision is a clause in the PCLAA that says under certain circumstances you can sue a gun manufacture We already discussed one of the circumstances above when there is a defect in their product. The others are breach of contract, criminal misconduct, and other actions for which they are directly responsible. In this case criminal misconduct does not mean when their weapon is used in a crime. Let’s say the president of Wite Power, a large gun manufacturer in Mississippi, has made hundreds of defective guns. While a customer was a attending a white supremacist rally, he pulls his gun out to shoot in the air and it plays Gil Scott Heron’s, “When The Revolution Comes.” The Wite Power company knew the weapons were defective but put them out there anyway and now the customer is in the intensive care unit in a black neighborhood surrounded by black doctors and nurses who ain’t feeling it. He can sue under these circumstances for criminal negligent entrustment. Okay, I am exaggerating the circumstances, but I hope you get the point. Another example of Negligent Entrustment happened in 2016. A Missouri gun store settled for $2.2 million, for selling a gun to a schizophrenic woman who later killed her father, after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the sale was “negligent entrustment” and therefore was not protected by the PLCAA. The store had previously been warned by the woman’s parents that she was mentally unstable, and asked that she not be sold a gun. However in 2012 after James Holmes shot and killed 12 people and wounded 58 in the Aurora movie massacre, a judge dismissed the case against  Lucky Gunner, the online store where some of the ammunition was purchased and ordered them to pay the legal fee’s a for the defendant. Accordingly, exceptions under “negligent entrustment” are difficult to prove and rarely clear the PLCAA threshold in court. In other words, good luck with that.

Domestic Terrorist Are Gonna Keep Shooting

Although there has been some conversation about the PCLAA, in general it has been sporadic and as scarce as a chicken wing after a Fourth Of July barbecue. They ain’t talking about it. The NRA has politicians scared. It like the bee that’s buzzing around you, you figure if you don’t mess with it, it won’t mess with you. Well they messing with us. Until politicians are ready to stand up and represent and stop leading, than we are going to have to get use to public service announcements like this one from the Department Of Homeland Security, “Run- Hide- Fight.”