President Biden emphasized on Monday while announcing his new controls on so-called “ghost guns” that acquiring gun makers’ internal documents is crucial to scrutinizing said makers’ marketing of “deadly products.”
Biden segued from so-called “ghost guns” and pushed for other gun controls, then praised the Sandy Hook Elementary School families who sued Remington over the December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook shooting.
The gun used in the Sandy Hook was a stolen Bushmaster rifle, and Bushmaster was owned by Remington at the time.
Biden noted, “Remington agreed to release thousands of pages of internal documents,” as part of the settlement with the Sandy Hook families.
He then said, “Here’s why it’s so important: Remember, it wasn’t until we saw the internal documents that we really understood what cigarette manufacturers were doing to our kids and to our families. Now, we may begin to see what gun manufacturers are and are not doing when it comes to making and marketing their deadly products.”
On February 4 Breitbart News reported that Biden compared gun makers to cigarette manufacturers, asking why the firearm industry has lawsuit protections that were not there to shield tobacco companies.
Townhall.com posted video of Biden addressing the topic by saying gun makers are “the only industry in America that is exempted from being able to be sued by the public.”
Biden has made the claim that gun makers have immunity from lawsuits numerous times before, and on April 9, 2021, Breitbart News pointed out that his claims are false.
Gun manufacturers are protected from lawsuits in situations where a gun, criminally used, was legally made and legally sold. Those protections are found in the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) of 2005.
But the protections set forth in the PLCAA do not shield gun manufacturers from lawsuits over defective goods, criminal misconduct on the part of the gun maker, etc. In other words, the protections in the PLCAA do not provide gun makers with immunity.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange