1.
This Act may be cited as the
Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms
Act
.
2.
(a)
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)
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.
3.
Prohibition on bringing of qualified civil liability actions in
Federal or state court
(a)
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.
4.
In this Act:
(1)
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)
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)
The term person
means any individual, corporation, company, association, firm, partnership,
society, joint stock company, or any other entity, including any governmental
entity.
(4)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
The term unlawful
misuse means conduct that violates a statute, ordinance, or regulation
as it relates to the use of a qualified product.
February 17, 2005
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