Jan 22, 2023
Eighteen State AGs Voicing Support for New York Gun-Industry Liability Law
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by Bruce Walker
A coalition of 18 state attorneys general, all Democrats, on Wednesday submitted an amicus brief in support of New York’s firearms industry accountability law.
In the brief, the coalition led by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul asserts the law’s legitimacy to protect residents public health, safety and welfare.
The law in question aims to hold the firearms industry legally liable for what the prosecutors label “irresponsible sale and marketing of firearms when that conduct results in harm to the public. Under the law, public officials or private citizens can file a lawsuit against a gun industry member when they knowingly or recklessly endanger the safety or health of the public in New York state through the unlawful or unreasonable sale, manufacturing, importing, or marketing of firearms. Gun industry members can also be held liable when they fail to use reasonable controls and procedures to prevent firearms from being unlawfully used or sold in New York state.”
Attorneys general signing the brief were from California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
New York became the first state in the nation to enact a gun accountability law in 2021. The law is facing court challenges, which contend it is unconstitutional and preempted by federal law. An initial lawsuit was dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. The attorneys general brief seeks to persuade an appellate court to uphold the lower court’s ruling.
“Although the amici States have taken different approaches when enacting measures designed to curb and remediate the effects of gun violence, they agree that public nuisance causes of action like the one created by § 898 – which addresses the gun industry members’ own misconduct – fall well within the States’ sovereign authority to protect their residents and to ‘provide tort remedies to their citizens as they see fit,'” Raoul wrote in the brief.
In a statement on the Smith & Wesson website, CEO Mark Smith countered what he characterizes as anti-Second Amendment legislation, including the New York statute.
“It is no surprise that the cities suffering most from violent crime are the very same cities that have promoted irresponsible, soft-on-crime policies that often treat criminals as victims and victims as criminals,” Smith said. “Many of these same cities also maintain the strictest gun laws in the nation. But rather than confront the failure of their policies, certain politicians have sought more laws restricting the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens, while simultaneously continuing to undermine our institutions of law and order. And to suppress the truth, some now seek to prohibit firearm manufacturers and supporters of the 2nd Amendment from advertising products in a manner designed to remind law-abiding citizens that they have a Constitutional right to bear arms in defense of themselves and their families. To be clear, a Smith & Wesson firearm has never broken into a home; a Smith & Wesson firearm has never assaulted a woman out for a late-night run in the city; a Smith & Wesson firearm has never carjacked an unsuspecting driver stopped at a traffic light.”
“It’s time for gun manufacturers and dealers to be held accountable when they act irresponsibly, such as in failing to prevent the straw purchasing of guns or employing marketing strategies that target vulnerable youth,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement. “The New York law is common-sense firearm legislation that imposes reasonable regulations to respond to the gun industry’s misconduct. I proudly stand with my colleagues in supporting New York’s desire to protect the public by enacting this new law.”
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Bruce Walker is a regional editor at The Center Square. He previously worked as editor at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s MichiganScience magazine and The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News.
Photo “Kwame Raoul” by Kwame Raoul. Background Photo “Gun Shop” by Michael McConville. CC BY 4.0.
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Tags: new jersey california gun control rhode island hawaii oregon vermont maryland firearms delaware illinois washington new mexico washington d c massachusetts attorneys general smith wesson kwame raoul new york’s law abiding citizens accountability law firearms industry attorneys general manufacturers in new york state the gun industry attorney general to protect editor in the nation in the brief the new york gun industry in the brief the new york new york district kwame raoul designed same cities
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Alliance of Big Tech, Dark Money Groups Partners with Counties in State That Bans Zuckerbucks for Elections
by Fred Lucas
The group that distributed most of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s controversial election grants in 2020 has designated at least two Utah counties as part of a new effort, despite a state ban on private money funding election operations.
The two local juridictions are Cache County, with a population of 137,00, and Weber County, population 267,000.
The U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, a group launched by the Center for Tech and Civic Life and other left-leaning organizations, designated the Utah counties as participants in its plans for 2024.
In 2022, the Utah Legislature passed and Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, signed into law SB 219. The measure says simply: “This bill prohibits an election officer from soliciting, accepting, or using funds donated for an election by a person other than a government entity.”
The law took effect last May.
Although the Center for Tech and Civic Life is leading the election alliance’s effort, partner organizations are funded by the left-wing, “dark money” groups Arabella Advisors and the Democracy Fund.
As reported earlier by The Daily Signal, the alliance previously announced the participation of 10 other jurisdictions, which each got known grants ranging from $500,000 to $3 million.
The Utah law likely would prohibit any election-related grants, Cache County Deputy Clerk Bryson Behm told The Daily Signal.
“I would expect that would exclude us from that and we are not searching for any grants,” Behm said in a phone interview. “This is just a networking opportunity to connect with other election officials about the best ways to secure elections.”
Behm said he learned from a conversation with Weber County officials that Weber County also was designated by the alliance as a “Center for Election Excellence.”
The Weber County elections office did not immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
Weber County Clerk Ricky Hatch is a member of the advisory committee for the Center for Tech and Civic Life, which launched the election alliance.
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, a Republican, did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Daily Signal on the matter.
The Alliance for Election Excellence’s membership agreement for participating jurisdictions says: “To accomplish these goals, the Alliance will develop and establish a nonpartisan, nationwide certification program so that jurisdictions meeting certain performance standards may hold themselves out as Centers for [Election] Excellence.”
The membership agreement is among documents obtained through public records requests by two conservative groups, the Washington, D.C.-based Honest Elections Project and the North Carolina-based John Locke Foundation. The two organizations issued a joint report on the Alliance for Election Excellence earlier this month.
For juridictions that participate, the fee is $1,600 for basic membership in the alliance and $4,800 for premium membership. In some cases, the alliance says, it waives membership fees through “scholarships.”
“They [the Alliance for Election Excellence] want to expand from these 10 jurisdictions with an influence campaign and gain access to the data and inner workings of election offices,” Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview.
“Even if a place can’t accept the scholarships under the Zuckerbuck bans, membership is as low as $1,600 to have access to these resources,” Snead said. “They are playing the long game.”
The Center for Tech and Civic Life, which handles press questions for the Alliance for Election Excellence, did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment for this report.
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Fred Lucas is chief news correspondent and manager of the Investigative Reporting Project for The Daily Signal. Lucas is also the author of “The Myth of Voter Suppression: The Left’s Assault on Clean Elections.”
Photo “Mark Zuckerberg” by Mark Zuckerberg. Background Photo “Election Day 2020” by Phil Roeder. CC BY 2.0.
Appeared at and reprinted from DailySignal.com