On Monday NBC News ran a supposed “in-depth report” on the gun-suit preemption bill now pending in Congress (no transcript online), essentially parroting the arguments of the bill’s critics. Blogger Alphecca provides a concise critique (Jul. 28). See Apr. 4-6, Apr. 25-27. J.R. Labbe of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram scoffs at the rather desperate efforts of some gun-litigation backers to spin Judge Weinstein’s dismissal of the NAACP lawsuit as somehow a victory for them (“Gun debate lacks common sense”, Tallahassee Democrat, Jul. 30). The National Association of Manufacturers warned this March that the precedents being sought by anti-gun litigators, “if widely applied, could result in bankruptcies for countless manufacturers of lawful products … ‘Today it?s handguns, but tomorrow it could be power tools, golf clubs or automobiles,’ said NAM Vice President for Litigation Quentin Riegel.” (NAM press release, Mar. 26). See also Dave Kopel, “Ban lawsuits that hurt legal gun industry”, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 19 (“At an American Bar Association symposium in 1999, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys for the antigun lawsuits explained that the attorneys had read the Dun & Bradstreet reports on the firearms companies, estimated how much the companies could spend defending themselves against litigation, and then filed so many cases in so many jurisdictions that the gun companies would not be able to spend the money to see the cases through to a verdict.”)

Filed under: bankruptcy, guns, Philadelphia