ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 1, 1996 TAG: 9604010099
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KRISTEN RAND
IF THE conference report of the misnamed ``Common Sense Product Liability Reform Act'' (H.R. 956), recently passed by the U.S. Senate and now pending in the House of Representatives, becomes law, the biggest winner may well be America's gun industry - especially ``Saturday Night Special'' handgun manufacturers, according to "Lawyers, Guns and Money," a new study by the Violence Policy Center and Public Citizen.
Despite the fact that firearms kill nearly twice as many Americans as all household consumer products combined, no federal agency has the authority to ensure that defectively designed guns are not marketed. This is unique. For example, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission exists to ensure that toasters don't explode, toys don't come apart, coffee makers don't catch fire, and that the myriad of consumer products within its jurisdiction are safe. Yet because no federal agency has health and safety regulation over firearms and ammunition, the tort system is the only check on safety.
The tort system helps to reduce firearms violence in two ways. First, it addresses the problem of unintentional fatal and nonfatal injuries associated with defectively designed and manufactured firearms and ammunition. Second, it holds accountable sellers and manufacturers who knowingly market and sell their products to such obviously high-risk individuals as criminals and minors.
Because of firearms' unique exemption from safety regulation, the restrictions on jury verdicts just passed by the Senate and pending in the House would have a magnified negative effect on the safety of firearms and the victims of gun violence. In recent years, some of the greatest gains in efforts to reduce firearm-related death and injury have occurred not through legislation, but litigation. Courts have helped deter the manufacture, sale and use of unsafe firearms, and have issued landmark rulings in cases involving assault-weapon manufacturers, gun-show promoters and firearm retailers. Many of these gains would be jeopardized if the proposed tort restrictions became law.
Not surprisingly, the firearms industry is actively backing limits on civil liability. Colt and other major firearm manufacturers have been longtime members of several organizations pushing for liability restrictions, such as the Product Liability Coordinating Committee. The American Shooting Sports Council, one of the gun industry's leading trade associations, is a member of the American Tort Reform Association, a coalition of large corporations and insurance companies working to weaken the civil-justice system on both the state and federal levels. Other ATRA members include the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Association.
Sturm, Ruger & Company - manufacturer of the Old Model single-action revolver, probably the most dangerous, defective handgun ever made - is also a member of many of these organizations. The Old Model single action has been the subject of hundreds of product-liability lawsuits. If pending tort restrictions become law, Sturm, Ruger would be freed from all liability connected to the Old Model.
And although the National Rifle Association of America claims to represent ``gun consumers,'' it has chosen to side with the firearms industry and actively work against the interests of the many hunters and shooters who are killed or injured each year by defective firearms. In a July 1995 interview, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told Guns and Ammo magazine, ``We are part of the coalition that is pursuing [tort restriction] legislation. ... The industry is certainly carrying the brunt of the issue, but we're lending support.''
As noted in the January 1996 Guns and Ammo, ``The main benefit to the firearms industry would be the cap on punitive damages. ... '' (Punitive damages are intended to punish and deter outrageous corporate conduct.) The bill contains an overall cap on punitive damages of two times compensatory damages or $250,000, whichever is greater. The bill also contains an absolute cap of $250,000 on punitive damages against ``small'' manufacturers - those with fewer than 25 full-time employees. These caps would not only apply to manufacturers but to cases alleging ``negligent entrustment'' in which gun dealers knowingly make a sale to a high-risk individual - such as a minor or felon.
Lawyers, Guns and Money reveals that the ``small-business'' cap would also protect America's leading Saturday-Night Special manufacturers. These companies manufacture cheap, concealable, low-quality handguns - many of which do not meet the minimum design and safety standards required of imported handguns by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. These standards do not apply to domestically manufactured handguns. As a result, the tort system provides the only regulation of domestic firearm manufacturers.
According to a spring 1995 survey conducted for the study, among the companies the ``small business'' cap would protect are Bryco Arms Inc. of Costa Mesa, Calif., and Davis Industries of Chino, Calif. Bryco was the third-top producer of handguns in 1993 and Davis was the fifth-largest producer of handguns in 1993. Lorcin, the No. 1 pistol manufacturer in America in 1993 and maker of the handgun most often seized at crime scenes, had 26 employees at the time of the survey and a company representative stated that it was engaged in layoffs. Undoubtedly, implementation of the legislation will encourage more layoffs.
The courts have played an increasingly important role in efforts to reduce firearm-related death and injury. Much of this progress, however, will come to a screeching halt if the tort-restriction bill becomes law. The firearms industry already enjoys a special exemption from regulation. Contrary to the assertions of tort-restriction proponents, true common sense dictates that the civil-justice system's regulatory and compensatory functions must remain potent.
Kristen Rand is director of federal policy at the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
Knight-Ridder/Tribune
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: D. B. Johnson/Los Angeles Times Syndicateby CNB