Opinion
BELLEVUE, WA – -(AmmoLand.com)- The Second Amendment Foundation today criticized the 4-3 split decision by the Connecticut state Supreme Court that reinstated a lawsuit against Remington Arms over how it marketed the Bushmaster rifle used in the tragic 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.
“This ruling strains logic, if not common sense,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The court dismissed the bulk of the lawsuit’s allegations but appears to have grasped at this single straw by deciding that the advertising is somehow at fault for what Adam Lanza did that day in December more than six years ago.
“This is like suing Ford or General Motors because a car they sold was stolen and used to run over a pedestrian all because the car manufacturers advertised that their car had better acceleration and performance than other vehicles,” he added.
Lanza, 20, first killed his mother and took her legally-purchased Bushmaster rifle to the school, where he murdered 20 youngsters and six adults. The lawsuit contends that Remington’s advertising was designed to glorify the Bushmaster rifle and enhance its appeal to younger consumers.
Justice Richard Palmer, writing for the majority, said that the “regulation of advertising that threatens the public’s health, safety, and morals has long been considered a core exercise of the state’s police powers.”
“That is absurd in this case,” Gottlieb observed. “Did the advertising even remotely suggest that the Bushmaster is best for murdering people? It appears to me like the court was looking for a way to squeak around the provisions of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that Congress passed in 2005. After all, the court dismissed most of the allegations but now has decided that advertising might be at fault. That’s a stretch of credulity worthy of surgical elastic.”
“There is no evidence the killer was driven by any advertising whatsoever,” he said. “This is an affront to the First Amendment as well as the Second. Even hinting that the killer was motivated in some way by an advertising message is so far out in the weeds that it may take a map for the court to find its way back.”
Second Amendment Foundation
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
I see that I’m preaching to the choir, but here’s my 2 cents.. I believe this is worse than what happened to the tobacco industry… It’s worse than taking/not taking responsibility too. Mc Donald’s failed to see the signs, (tobacco’s Surgeon General warnings hinted at it coming down the road), of irresponsible people using “not warning of hot coffee” as a paycheck… How many companies spent fortunes afterwards to label everything? Do we want to stop this ‘evil’? It starts with Family, …training up a child in the way they should go.. Responsibility! No more allowing Gov/School/Society to decide what’s… Read more »
this is all about big money and lawyers I was told that by one of the dads whos daughter was killed there he is a good friend of mine
gun-control d-suckers of America: FU
Just think about it, we actually pay enormous taxes to these people who, in turn, use their position to make life miserable for us. You would think we would be smarter than that. It appears that most that comment here have a high degree of intelligence but the progressives still get away with whatever they want to do. I, for one, won’t be buying any guns made in Conn. because the state of progressives will get a cut of it. If the gun companies can’t move out then they can go down with the ship
The bushmaster wasn’t even used at sandy hoax. The bushmaster was found in the trunk of the car of the alleged shooter. The hellicopter that flew over caught the shot of the trunk with the bushmaster in it.
I hope that whatever is left of Remington, Colt, Marlin, Winchester, Mossberg, Charter, and all of the remaining arms manufacturers LEAVE CONNECTICUT IMMEDIATLY!! Make provision for your employees and tell Ct to go to hell.
Connecticut has been the cradle of manufacturing for a long time, but now government has regulated and chased out almost all manufacturing jobs. If you don’t work for insurance or some college or university you don’t belong in Ct. The elites ( I hate that term) rule. I’m just glad I was able to ESCAPE to the free world 5 years ago.