Republicans Look to Improve Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act

The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act could soon offer even more protections for the firearms industry, thanks to a new bill introduced by Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee Rep. and Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY). When the PLCAA was enacted 20 years ago, the intent was to indemnify the firearms industry from baseless lawsuits that sought to hold gun companies responsible for the criminal misuse of their products. 

Though the law has largely been successful in that regard, a number of blue states have adopted measures over the past few years that are aimed at doing an end run around the PLCAA, largely by allowing and encouraging lawsuits based on public nuisance laws. New York, New Jersey, California, and Illinois are just a few of the states that have taken this approach, but now Republicans on Capitol Hill are fighting back.

The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act Jurisdiction Act adds a provision to the PLCAA stating that cases filed in state court which meet the requirements for protection under the PLCAA can be removed to federal court so that gun manufacturers and dealers can qualify for the liability protections created by Congress.This legislation would further the PLCAA’s goal of ending abusive, frivolous litigation by reducing forum shopping and other attempts to weaponize our legal system against the firearms industry.

The only complaint I have about this bill is the name. The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act Jurisdiction Act is a mouthful, not to mention a little clunky in terms of syntax. 

What the PLCAAJA actually does, however, isn’t clunky or awkward at all. It’s actually a pretty elegant solution to the forum shopping that gun control activists and their political allies have engaged in over the years, most recently with the city of Chicago’s lawsuit against Glock. Chicago’s initial lawsuit was filed in federal court, but the city dismissed its own claims last March and refiled its lawsuit in Cook County, using Illinois’ recently enacted Firearms Industry Responsibility Act, which was essentially designed to provide the city and state a way to do an end run around the PLCAA. 

In his press release, Sen. Lee proclaimed that “we cannot allow law-abiding Americans to lose their Second Amendment rights through unjust attacks on those who legally make and sell firearms,” adding, “This legislation will save businesses from frivolous lawsuits and forum-shopping by amending the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, defending the right of all Americans to keep and bear arms.”

Hageman, meanwhile, believes the PLCAAJA “ensur[es] radical gun-control advocates cannot hurt firearm manufactures by filing politically motivated cases in state courts.”

The Senate bill has already started attracting cosponsors, including Josh Hawley, Ted Budd, Rick Scott, Bill Cassidy, and Marsha Blackburn. Unless this language is attached to an appropriations bill, however, it’s unlikely to get the 60 votes needed for cloture. It’s possible that a Democrat like John Fetterman signs on, but supporters would still need a half-dozen other Democrats in the Senate to get on board, and that’s a tall order given the anti-gun ideology that seems to be an inherent part of Democratic politics these days. 

Still, this is a fight worth having, and if the PLCAAJA ends up tucked away inside a budget bill I’d be okay with that. With anti-gunners intent on using lawfare to bankrupt the firearms industry, gun makers and gun sellers deserve to have all of the protections that the PLCAA offers, and removing these state-level lawsuits to federal court would go a long way towards curtailing these junk lawsuits.