CT bill that would clear path for lawsuits against gun industry passes House
mark pazniokas / CT Mirror
House Speaker Matt Ritter and Rep. Steve Stafstrom during the House session Monday. Debate of the gun bill was shecedule for Monday, then postponed until Wednesday.
The gun industry could face civil damages for the misuse of firearms in limited circumstances in Connecticut under product liability legislation passed by the House and sent to the Senate on Wednesday.
Passage of House Bill 7042 came on a largely party-line vote of 100 to 46 in the House, where Democrats have a 102-49 majority. Five Democrats were opposed and five Republicans in favor.
Republican opponents decried the bill as unfairly holding gun makers and sellers responsible for the actions of purchasers, while the Democratic sponsor described it as a reasonable effort to make an industry be more attentive to public safety.
The state legislation follows a narrow path left open by a federal law that generally protects the gun industry from damages resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse of firearms or ammunition.
Exceptions to the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act include cases where harms occurred after a manufacturer or seller knowingly violated a law applicable to the sale or marketing of guns.
Nine states have passed similar laws, said Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, the lead sponsor of the bill.
He said the same exception was used by families of nine Sandy Hook Elementary School families to sue Remington over its marketing of the AR-15 style rifle used to kill 20 students and six educators in 2012. They agreed to a $73 million settlement in 2022.
The U.S. Supreme Court had refused to hear an appeal of a Connecticut’s court decision that allowed the families to pursue the case.
The families sued under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act. A key element of the lawsuit was a claim that Remington knowingly marketed the rifle to young, at-risk males in advertising and product placement. One the ads featured the rifle and the phrase: “Consider Your Man Card Reissued.”
The measure requires the firearms industry to establish and enforce “reasonable controls” preventing persons ineligible to purchase a gun from obtaining one through a straw purchase or other means.
“What this bill would do is provide a civil remedy or a civil cause of action for victims of violence, victims of gun crimes, victims of those who are harmed by irresponsible actions by gun manufacturers, gun dealers and gun sellers,” Stafstrom said.
Stafstrom is a trial lawyer, co-chair of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee and a long-time ally of a gun safety movement influential in Connecticut since the Sandy Hook school shooting.
House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, dismissed the bill as a windfall for the personal-injury bar.
“This is probably a trial lawyer’s dream. I don’t think it does anything to make Connecticut residents safer from gun violence,” Candelora said. “It certainly will make lawyers a lot richer.”
Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, said, “We are saying to the firearm industry, ‘You’re going to be held to a different standard.’”
Gun dealers complained at a public hearing that the measure would threaten their businesses.
Edward Rando, the owner of Ron’s Guns in East Lyme, said he feared the bill would make insurance unavailable or prohibitively expensive. In the last 40 years, he said, the annual cost of insurance quadrupled from $5,000 to $20,000.
The measure also would prohibit persons convicted of violent misdemeanors outside the state from obtaining a carry permit necessary to purchase firearms and ammunition in Connecticut. Current law only makes those misdemeanors disqualifying if they occurred in the state.
The five Democrats opposing the bill were Jill Barry of Glastonbury, Pat Boyd of Pomfret, Michael DiGiovancarlo of Waterbury, Chris Poulos of Southington, and Kerry Wood of Rocky Hill.
The five Republicans in favor were Chris Aniskovich of Clinton, Devin Carney of Old Saybrook, Tina Courpas of Greenwich, Tom Delnicki of South Windsor and Tracy Marra of Darien.
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