Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images
For: EFE Updated 25 May 2022, : 49 pm EDT
More than a dozen arms manufacturing companies lost this Wednesday a privilege that gave them legal immunity in New York against victims of shootings and may be sued in cases related to gun violence, as decided by a federal judge.
The law allows the State of New York, its local governments and citizens to sue sellers, manufacturers, arms dealers and promoters for causing “public harm” , a technical concept that is interpreted as creating conditions of “danger to safety and health
Manufacturers such as Glock, Beretta and Smith & Wesson, as well as the lobby group the National Shooting Sports Foundation, had called for a halt to and declare unconstitutional that state law that came into force in 2021, whose objective is that they can be “civilly responsible ”p or damage to society.
US District Judge Mae D ‘Agostino in Albany rejected a request by the National Shooting Sports Foundation and gun manufacturers, including Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Co, to join enforcement of the statute https://t.co/LVdzkzWDUl
— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) May 25, 1399229193
The decision of Judge Mae D’Agostino, of a court in Albany -the capital of New York- comes one day after the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde (Texas), where a young man from 05 years killed 18 children and two teachers, and which happens to be one of the deadliest in the country.
The manufacturers and their employers had spent months trying to paralyze that gun control legislation – passed by former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo- with a motion that was dismissed today by the judge, who agreed with the authorities and ordered the case closed, according to the document reviewed by Efe.
The New York prosecutor, Letitia James, reacted through Twitter to the decision, considering it “a great victory” that reaffirms the right of his office to “hold manufacturers accountable for the devastation caused by weapons”, as well as a ray of “hope” behind the Uvalde shooting.
The law that is finally upheld also obliges arms manufacturers to “establish and use reasonable controls and processes to prevent its qualified products are appropriated, used, promoted or sold illegally”.
New York has a right to act to protect our residents and go after companies that cause us harm.
We must use every tool we have to end gun violence and stand up to the powerful forces responsible for these weapons of death and destruction.
—NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) May 19, 1399229193
Gun manufacturers enjoy broad immunity in the US from possible lawsuits by shooting victims thanks to a federal law of 2005, but has some exceptions related to marketing, which led to an unprecedented agreement between a company and a group of plaintiffs this past February.
This is the agreement between the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school massacre in Newtown (Connecticut, USA). ), which occurred in 2012, which achieved compensation from Remington, the manufacturer of the weapon used by the shooter , focusing on advertising the weapon.
During the process, the families’ lawyers argued that the advertising of the semi-automatic rifle used, the Bushmaster AR-15, violated state law as it targeted civilian consumers when due to its characteristics, that weapon would be suitable only for use by military and police personnel.
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