1、CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i When Can the Firearm Industry Be Sued? April 24, 2019 There has been increased interest in the scope of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) after the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that
2、 a wrongful death lawsuit may go forward against the manufacturer, distributor, and dealer of the semiautomatic rifle used by the assailant in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The PLCAA generally bars lawsuits in federal or state court against firearm manufa
3、cturers, distributors, and dealers when a third party acquires a firearm from that distribution chain and uses it for criminal ends. But the plaintiffs in Soto v. Bushmaster Firearms International contend, and the Connecticut Supreme Court agreed, that the alleged claims fit within one of the PLCAAs
4、 enumerated exceptions: when a manufacturer or seller knowingly violates a state or federal law “applicable to” the sale or marketing of firearms, and that violation “was a proximate cause” of the harm the lawsuit seeks to vindicate (known as the “predicate exception”). This Sidebar outlines the PLC
