Clinton: Why Shrink Gun Industry’s Liability Shield When We Could Just Get Rid Of It?
BY ALAN PYKE JAN 10, 2016
With a new poll now showing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a statistical tie in Iowa and New Hampshire, Clinton renewed her attack on Sanders’ record of support for the firearms industry on Sunday. On CBS’ Face the Nation, Clinton again called on Sanders to say Congress should repeal a decade-old law protecting gun manufacturers and sellers from civil liability even when they had good reason to be suspicious of the intentions of their customers who later commit crimes. Then-congressman Sanders was one of 59 House Democrats to support the liability restrictions in 2005. He has since said the law should be changed. The Clinton campaign has hit Sanders on the vote repeatedly in the early months of the primary race. His openness to changing the bill isn’t good enough, she told Face the Nation. Sanders “has been unwilling to join the president and me in saying this should be repealed,” Clinton said, emphasizing that she and then-Sen. Obama opposed the measure Sanders supported in his final House term.
The law in question doesn’t give gunmakers absolute immunity from lawsuits, but it does void the logic underlying a spate of court actions that states and cities attempted to take in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
