[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 397 Placed on Calendar Senate (PCS)]
Calendar No. 15
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 397
To prohibit civil liability actions from being brought or continued
against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms
or ammunition for damages, injunctive or other relief resulting from
the misuse of their products by others.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 16, 2005
Mr. Craig (for himself, Mr. Baucus, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Bunning, Mr.
Burns, Mr. Chambliss, Mr. Coburn, Ms. Collins, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Crapo,
Mr. Domenici, Mr. Ensign, Mr. Enzi, Mrs. Hutchison, Mr. Inhofe, Mr.
Isakson, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Kyl, Mrs. Lincoln, Ms. Murkowski, Mr. Nelson
of Nebraska, Mr. Santorum, Mr. Sessions, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Stevens, Mr.
Thomas, Mr. Thune, Mr. Sununu, Mr. Allen, Mr. Vitter, and Ms. Landrieu)
introduced the following bill; which was read the first time
February 17, 2005
Read the second time and placed on the calendar
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit civil liability actions from being brought or continued
against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms
or ammunition for damages, injunctive or other relief resulting from
the misuse of their products by others.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Protection of Lawful Commerce in
Arms Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; PURPOSES.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
(1) The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
provides that the right of the people to keep and bear arms
shall not be infringed.
(2) The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
protects the rights of individuals, including those who are not
members of a militia or engaged in military service or
training, to keep and bear arms.
(3) Lawsuits have been commenced against manufacturers,
distributors, dealers, and importers of firearms that operate
as designed and intended, which seek money damages and other
relief for the harm caused by the misuse of firearms by third
parties, including criminals.
(4) The manufacture, importation, possession, sale, and use
of firearms and ammunition in the United States are heavily
regulated by Federal, State, and local laws. Such Federal laws
include the Gun Control Act of 1968, the National Firearms Act,
and the Arms Export Control Act.
(5) Businesses in the United States that are engaged in
interstate and foreign commerce through the lawful design,
manufacture, marketing, distribution, importation, or sale to
the public of firearms or ammunition products that have been
shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce are
not, and should not, be liable for the harm caused by those who
criminally or unlawfully misuse firearm products or ammunition
products that function as designed and intended.
(6) The possibility of imposing liability on an entire
industry for harm that is solely caused by others is an abuse
of the legal system, erodes public confidence in our Nation's
laws, threatens the diminution of a basic constitutional right
and civil liberty, invites the disassembly and destabilization
of other industries and economic sectors lawfully competing in
the free enterprise system of the United States, and
constitutes an unreasonable burden on interstate and foreign
commerce of the United States.
(7) The liability actions commenced or contemplated by the
Federal Government, States, municipalities, and private
interest groups and others are based on theories without
foundation in hundreds of years of the common law and
jurisprudence of the United States and do not represent a bona
fide expansion of the common law. The possible sustaining of
these actions by a maverick judicial officer or petit jury
would expand civil liability in a manner never contemplated by
the framers of the Constitution, by Congress, or by the
legislatures of the several States. Such an expansion of
liability would constitute a deprivation of the rights,
privileges, and immunities guaranteed to a citizen of the
United States under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United
States Constitution.
(8) The liability actions commenced or contemplated by the
Federal Government, States, municipalities, private interest
groups and others attempt to use the judicial branch to
circumvent the Legislative branch of government to regulate
interstate and foreign commerce through judgments and judicial
decrees thereby threatening the Separation of Powers doctrine
and weakening and undermining important principles of
federalism, State sovereignty and comity between the sister
States.
(b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are as follows:
(1) To prohibit causes of action against manufacturers,
distributors, dealers, and importers of firearms or ammunition
products, and their trade associations, for the harm solely
caused by the criminal or unlawful misuse of firearm products
or ammunition products by others when the product functioned as
designed and intended.
(2) To preserve a citizen's access to a supply of firearms
and ammunition for all lawful purposes, including hunting,
self-defense, collecting, and competitive or recreational
shooting.
(3) To guarantee a citizen's rights, privileges, and
immunities, as applied to the States, under the Fourteenth
Amendment to the United States Constitution, pursuant to
section 5 of that Amendment.
(4) To prevent the use of such lawsuits to impose
unreasonable burdens on interstate and foreign commerce.
(5) To protect the right, under the First Amendment to the
Constitution, of manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and
importers of firearms or ammunition products, and trade
associations, to speak freely, to assemble peaceably, and to
petition the Government for a redress of their grievances.
(6) To preserve and protect the Separation of Powers
doctrine and important principles of federalism, State
sovereignty and comity between sister States.
(7) To exercise congressional power under art. IV, section
1 (the Full Faith and Credit Clause) of the United States
Constitution.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON BRINGING OF QUALIFIED CIVIL LIABILITY ACTIONS IN
FEDERAL OR STATE COURT.
(a) In General.--A qualified civil liability action may not be
brought in any Federal or State court.
(b) Dismissal of Pending Actions.--A qualified civil liability
action that is pending on the date of enactment of this Act shall be
immediately dismissed by the court in which the action was brought or
is currently pending.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Engaged in the business.--The term ``engaged in the
business'' has the meaning given that term in section
921(a)(21) of title 18, United States Code, and, as applied to
a seller of ammunition, means a person who devotes, time,
attention, and labor to the sale of ammunition as a regular
course of trade or business with the principal objective of
livelihood and profit through the sale or distribution of
ammunition.
(2) Manufacturer.--The term ``manufacturer'' means, with
respect to a qualified product, a person who is engaged in the
business of manufacturing the product in interstate or foreign
commerce and who is licensed to engage in business as such a
manufacturer under chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code.
(3) Person.--The term ``person'' means any individual,
corporation, company, association, firm, partnership, society,
joint stock company, or any other entity, including any
governmental entity.
(4) Qualified product.--The term ``qualified product''
means a firearm (as defined in subparagraph (A) or (B) of
section 921(a)(3) of title 18, United States Code), including
any antique firearm (as defined in section 921(a)(16) of such
title), or ammunition (as defined in section 921(a)(17)(A) of
such title), or a component part of a firearm or ammunition,
that has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign
commerce.
(5) Qualified civil liability action.--
(A) In general.--The term ``qualified civil
liability action'' means a civil action or proceeding
or an administrative proceeding brought by any person
against a manufacturer or seller of a qualified
product, or a trade association, for damages, punitive
damages, injunctive or declaratory relief, abatement,
restitution, fines, or penalties, or other relief''
resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse of a
qualified product by the person or a third party, but
shall not include--
(i) an action brought against a transferor
convicted under section 924(h) of title 18,
United States Code, or a comparable or
identical State felony law, by a party directly
harmed by the conduct of which the transferee
is so convicted;
(ii) an action brought against a seller for
negligent entrustment or negligence per se;
(iii) an action in which a manufacturer or
seller of a qualified product knowingly
violated a State or Federal statute applicable
to the sale or marketing of the product, and
the violation was a proximate cause of the harm
for which relief is sought, including--
(I) any case in which the
manufacturer or seller knowingly made
any false entry in, or failed to make
appropriate entry in, any record
required to be kept under Federal or
State law with respect to the qualified
product, or aided, abetted, or
conspired with any person in making any
false or fictitious oral or written
statement with respect to any fact
material to the lawfulness of the sale
or other disposition of a qualified
product; or
(II) any case in which the
manufacturer or seller aided, abetted,
or conspired with any other person to
sell or otherwise dispose of a
qualified product, knowing, or having
reasonable cause to believe, that the
actual buyer of the qualified product
was prohibited from possessing or
receiving a firearm or ammunition under
subsection (g) or (n) of section 922 of
title 18, United States Code;
(iv) an action for breach of contract or
warranty in connection with the purchase of the
product; or
(v) an action for death, physical injuries
or property damage resulting directly from a
defect in design or manufacture of the product,
when used as intended or in a reasonably
foreseeable manner, except that where the
discharge of the product was caused by a
volitional act that constituted a criminal
offense then such act shall be considered the
sole proximate cause of any resulting death,
personal injuries or property damage.
(B) Negligent entrustment.--As used in subparagraph
(A)(ii), the term `negligent entrustment' means the
supplying of a qualified product by a seller for use by
another person when the seller knows, or reasonably
should know, the person to whom the product is supplied
is likely to, and does, use the product in a manner
involving unreasonable risk of physical injury to the
person or others.
(C) Rule of construction.--The exceptions
enumerated under clauses (i) through (v) of
subparagraph (A) shall be construed so as not to be in
conflict, and no provision of this Act shall be
construed to create a public or private cause of action
or remedy.
(6) Seller.--The term ``seller'' means, with respect to a
qualified product--
(A) an importer (as defined in section 921(a)(9) of
title 18, United States Code) who is engaged in the
business as such an importer in interstate or foreign
commerce and who is licensed to engage in business as
such an importer under chapter 44 of title 18, United
States Code;
(B) a dealer (as defined in section 921(a)(11) of
title 18, United States Code) who is engaged in the
business as such a dealer in interstate or foreign
commerce and who is licensed to engage in business as
such a dealer under chapter 44 of title 18, United
States Code; or
(C) a person engaged in the business of selling
ammunition (as defined in section 921(a)(17)(A) of
title 18, United States Code) in interstate or foreign
commerce at the wholesale or retail level.
(7) State.--The term ``State'' includes each of the several
States of the United States, the District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American
Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,
and any other territory or possession of the United States, and
any political subdivision of any such place.
(8) Trade association.--The term ``trade association''
means--
(A) any corporation, unincorporated association,
federation, business league, professional or business
organization not organized or operated for profit and
no part of the net earnings of which inures to the
benefit of any private shareholder or individual;
(B) that is an organization described in section
501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and
exempt from tax under section 501(a) of such Code; and
(C) 2 or more members of which are manufacturers or
sellers of a qualified product.
(9) Unlawful misuse.--The term ``unlawful misuse'' means
conduct that violates a statute, ordinance, or regulation as it
relates to the use of a qualified product.
Calendar No. 15
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 397
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit civil liability actions from being brought or continued
against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms
or ammunition for damages, injunctive or other relief resulting from
the misuse of their products by others.
_______________________________________________________________________
February 17, 2005
Read the second time and placed on the calendar