Connecticut’s U.S. Senators are once again pushing to repeal the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). The law protects gun manufacturers from lawsuits brought by victims of gun violence and their families.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the bill’s Senate sponsor, admitted that it’s a hard sell to his Republican colleagues and President.
“Obviously we face an administration that has very little sympathy for Gun Violence Protection,” Blumenthal said. “We face long odds in Congress. But keeping alive this idea, sustaining the momentum in states that care about our leadership here, and making sure that victims of gun violence know they have advocates, is all tremendously important.”
The lawsuit won by the Sandy Hook families against Remington was almost blocked by PLCAA — they instead sued through Connecticut’s consumer protection laws. Their success is extremely rare.
“In the vast majority of lawsuits, there are dismissals because of this law, which gives a unique immunity to gun sellers and manufacturers,” Blumenthal said. "It's unlike virtually any other manufacturer of consumer products.”
PLCAA’s supporters say it keeps lawful gun businesses from being sued when their products are misused by criminals.
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) pushed back on that, citing improved gun violence statistics since he led the passage of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
“If we pass this bill, if we provide a little bit more incentive for safer technology, a little bit more incentive for the gun retailers to be careful about who they sell to, then there's no doubt that we will get another down payment, as we got in 2022 after passage of the bipartisan Safer Communities Act on the world that we want to see,” Murphy said.
This session, Connecticut lawmakers passed a bill that would allow individuals as well as the Attorney General’s office to sue manufacturers who knowingly sell to straw purchasers, firearm traffickers, or criminals.
The bill faced pushback from Republicans and the National Rifle Association.
“This legislation has the potential to bankrupt local firearm industry members through a litany of lawsuits, inflating business costs in such a fashion that it severely limits opportunities for gun owners to lawfully purchase firearms, ammunition, and components,” the NRA Institute for Legislative Action’s website reads.
Connecticut would be the tenth state to pass such a law.
It’s waiting for a signature from Governor Ned Lamont (D).
