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CSGV Decries House Proposal Shielding Gun Industry
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
CSGV Decries House Proposal Shielding Gun Industry from Liability
4/18/2002
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Press Release
Contact:
Blaine Rummel
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
1023 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 408-0061
www.gunfree.org
"Gun Industry Relief" Hearings Coincide With New GAO Report on Easy Counterfeiting of Federal Firearms Licenses
Washington, DC - The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection today (Tuesday) held hearings on HR 2037, a bill intended to grant special legal protections to the gun industry. Sponsored by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) and backed by the gun lobby, the bill is intended to shield negligent gun manufacturers and gun dealers from legal accountability.
The hearing coincides with a new General Accounting Office report that highlights the disturbing implications of such a law, by detailing the ease with which illegal traffickers can use clearly fraudulent federal firearms licenses to buy guns. Under HR 2037, gun dealers who negligently provide guns to traffickers are intended to be immune from responsibility, even if the weapons are later used in crime.
"This outrageous legislation intends to unfairly protect the gun industry, by treading on gun violence victims' rights to a day in court," said Joshua Horwitz, Executive Director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "No other industry is allowed to deny responsibility for its negligent behavior. And no other industry manufactures consumer products designed for the sole purpose of taking human life."
The GAO report, requested by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), highlights the case of an Ohio gun distributor who provided a California man using an altered federal firearms license with hundreds of guns, including assault weapons. Dozens of those guns, so far, have been recovered at crime scenes throughout California, and at least one has been recovered in a crime as far away as Wisconsin.
Although the license was clearly phony and the high-volume purchases extremely suspicious, the distributor hid behind a loophole in the law allowing him to rely, without question, on the fake license. If HR 2037 becomes law, negligent gun dealers like the one in Ohio likely will rely on it in their attempts to avoid liability.
Twenty-two states have passed similar immunity legislation.
http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/alerts/reader/0,2061,550184,00.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
4/18/2002
Subscribe
Press Release
Contact:
Blaine Rummel
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
1023 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 408-0061
www.gunfree.org
"Gun Industry Relief" Hearings Coincide With New GAO Report on Easy Counterfeiting of Federal Firearms Licenses
Washington, DC - The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection today (Tuesday) held hearings on HR 2037, a bill intended to grant special legal protections to the gun industry. Sponsored by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) and backed by the gun lobby, the bill is intended to shield negligent gun manufacturers and gun dealers from legal accountability.
The hearing coincides with a new General Accounting Office report that highlights the disturbing implications of such a law, by detailing the ease with which illegal traffickers can use clearly fraudulent federal firearms licenses to buy guns. Under HR 2037, gun dealers who negligently provide guns to traffickers are intended to be immune from responsibility, even if the weapons are later used in crime.
"This outrageous legislation intends to unfairly protect the gun industry, by treading on gun violence victims' rights to a day in court," said Joshua Horwitz, Executive Director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "No other industry is allowed to deny responsibility for its negligent behavior. And no other industry manufactures consumer products designed for the sole purpose of taking human life."
The GAO report, requested by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), highlights the case of an Ohio gun distributor who provided a California man using an altered federal firearms license with hundreds of guns, including assault weapons. Dozens of those guns, so far, have been recovered at crime scenes throughout California, and at least one has been recovered in a crime as far away as Wisconsin.
Although the license was clearly phony and the high-volume purchases extremely suspicious, the distributor hid behind a loophole in the law allowing him to rely, without question, on the fake license. If HR 2037 becomes law, negligent gun dealers like the one in Ohio likely will rely on it in their attempts to avoid liability.
Twenty-two states have passed similar immunity legislation.
http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/alerts/reader/0,2061,550184,00.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878