By Corey Ciorciari, Molly Voigt, Jack Craven, and Lucas BurgardĀ
GEORGIA ON OUR MIND
Another tragedy, another reminder of how dangerous Trump is on guns. Flashback to 2017: At the behest of the gun lobby, Trump froze two rules that would have required gun stores to sell child safety locks. Seems relevant.
DANIELāS (PLCAA) DEFENSE
Georgia is also home to Daniel Defense, the gun maufacterer currently being sued by Uvalde families forā¦marketing assault weapons to children. Daniel Defenseās motion to block the suit relies entirely on one law: PLCAA.
Flashback to 2019: then-Senator Kamala Harris posed a question ā What if there was a way to get around PLCAA without Congress overturning the law? Also seems relevant. Letās dive in.
NOT THE NEXT TOBACCO
Passed in 2005, PLCAA ā or the artfully named āProtection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Actā ā provides near-blanket civil immunity to gun makers and sellers. When the NRA made PLCAA their top legislative priority, they claimed it would shield gun sellers from liability for crimes that others committed with the guns they sold.Ā
But that was never the intent. After watching the courts reign in Big Tobacco in the ā90s, the NRA wanted to shut the door on all legal accountability for gun makers and dealers, including for crimes they committed.
And so they wrote PLCAA to do exactly that. Now, gun makers can avoid liability for negligent supply chain practices, for creating deadly public nuisances by ālosingā guns, and for marketing Barbie AK-47s to kids ā escaping the types of legal accountability that brought Big Tobacco to its knees.Ā
3 vs. 5,000
The result: Over the last 20 years, only a handful of cases against gun makers and dealers have successfully cracked PLCAAās liability shield. In less than half that time, the e-cigarette company Juul has been forced to settle over 5,000 cases.
KAMALAāS IDEA
Against that backdrop, Kamala proposed an idea: What if instead of individual victims trying to sidestep PLCAA, the federal government did instead? To understand why thatās a potential game-changer, you need to understand three things:
First, while PLCAA blocks most private lawsuits against law-breaking gun dealers, it doesnāt prevent the government from revoking their licenses for federal violations. Thatās why, in 2019, Kamala called for a āzero toleranceā policy for gun dealers that violate federal law. As VP, she put the proposal into practice and now more licenses are being revoked from lawbreaking gun dealers than ever before.Ā
Second, the federal government can even revoke licenses from dealers that violate state and local laws. This was Kamalaās new insight: In addition to revoking a license for violating federal law, the ATF can police local gun laws too. Why? Because the Gun Control Act makes it a federal crime for a dealer to violate a local law (essentially āfederalizingā local law), any local law violation can be grounds for revoking a gun dealer's license. Thatās a big deal! It means the ATF can enforce the local laws that PLCAA tried to undercut.
Third, the federal government can go further by bringing criminal charges against gun dealers that violate state or local laws. One of the six narrow exceptions to PLCCAās otherwise blanket immunity shield applies to the Attorney General: DOJ can bring criminal charges against gun dealers that violate federal law. That makes Kamalaās insight important here as well: Because the Gun Control Act āfederalizesā local law, DOJ can do more than strip licenses, it can bring criminal charges against gun dealers that violate local or state laws.
All that adds up to the federal government sidestepping PLCAA by using state and local laws to finally hold criminal gun dealers accountable.Ā
TOUGH ON GUN CRIME
Taking on PLCAA wasnāt Kamalaās only new idea. She detailed other executive actions to hold the gun industry accountable:
Require websites that facilitate gun sales ā like ArmsList.com ā to perform background checks. Under federal law, only gun ādealersā must perform background checks, a legal designation that doesnāt apply to millions of āprivateā gun sales each year. Websites that facilitate gun sales between private sellers are also not considered ādealers.ā This loophole allows ArmsList.com to post ads for millions of gun sales each year that explicitly say a background check is not required. Kamala proposed taking executive action to clarify that ādealing in firearmsā also means āfacilitating private gun sales for profitā ā requiring sites like ArmsList.com to perform background checks.
Ban the importation of assault weapons. The Gun Control Act allows the Attorney General to ban the importation of guns not āsuitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes.ā Both Presidents Clinton and George H. W. Bush used the authority to ban over 100 types of guns from being imported into the U.S. However, according to a 2011 report by Sen. Feinstein, gun manufacturers adapted over time to exploit the technical language in the bans. In 2019, Kamala proposed updating and broadening the bans to cover all AR-15-style assault weapon imports.
Close the dating partner loophole. While the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was designed to narrow the so-called ādating partner loophole,ā we found strong evidence that it isnāt working as intended: Last year, fewer gun sales were denied on the basis of āmisdemeanor crimes of domestic violenceā ā the provision at the heart of the loophole ā than in the two years before the BSCA became law. In part, thatās because the definition of āserious dating relationshipā remains unclear. In 2019, Kamala proposed a fix thatās still applicable today: Create a list of factors that prove a sufficiently serious relationship exists, like cohabitation, relationships lasting six months or more, or marital engagement (read more about it here).
EVERGREEN PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Optimizing Gun Crime Intelligence
Featuring the Joyce Foundation
Community Violence Intervention Action Plan
Featuring Community Justice, the HAVI, NICJR, CBPS Collective, and the Urban Peace Institute
Featuring Brady: United Against Gun Violence
Featuring the Northwell Health Center for Gun Violence Prevention