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1 (March 30, 1999)

handle is hein.crs/crsahbr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS20126 Updated March 30, 1999 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web Gun Industry Liability: Lawsuits and Legislation Henry Cohen Legislative Attorney American Law Division Summary A number of cities have recently filed suit or plan to file suit against gun manufacturers and gun marketers. These suits are based on different legal theories, but they all seek to recover the cities' expenses resulting from the use of guns. About 20 states, however, are considering legislation to prevent their cities from suing the gun industry, and, on February 9, 1999, Georgia became the first state to enact such a law. Members of the 106' Congress, meanwhile, have introduced bills to permit and to preclude suits against the gun industry. History: Maryland and D.C. In 1985, the Maryland Court of Appeals announced that it was changing the common law to hold the manufacturers and marketers of Saturday Night Special handguns strictly liable to innocent persons who suffer gunshot injuries from the criminal use of their products. Kelley v. R.G. Industries, Inc., 497 A.2d 1143, 1159 (Md. 1985). This ruling changed the common law in that the common law holds manufacturers and sellers strictly liable (liable without regard to negligence) for injuries caused by products only if they are defective, whether in their manufacture, their design (in that a safer version of the product was feasible at the time of manufacture), or because of a failure to warn users of the product's hazards. Saturday Night Specials, in general, were not defective in any of these senses. The Maryland legislature, however, overturned the court decision, and Maryland Annotated Code Article 27, § 36-1(h) now prohibits liability except in traditional circumstances or if the defendant conspired with or willfully aided or abetted the criminal who used the firearm. The District of Columbia City Council, by contrast, enacted the Assault Weapon Manufacturing Strict Liability Act of 1990, D.C. Code § 6-2392, providing: Any manufacturer, importer, or dealer of an assault weapon or machine gun shall be held strictly liable in tort, without regard to fault or proof of defect, for all direct and consequential damages that arise from bodily injury or death if the bodily injury or death proximately results from the discharge of the assault weapon or machine gun in the District of Columbia. This statute remains in effect, but apparently has never been used. Congressional Research Service + The Library of Congress

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