15 U.S.C. § 7901 — Findings; purposes
submitted 21 years ago by Pub. L. 109-92 to r/title-15-COMMERCE-AND-TRADE · 718 words · no verdicts yet
Congress states findings about firearms regulation, lawsuits, and constitutional rights, and states purposes including limiting certain liability actions and protecting lawful firearms access and industry rights.
(a) Findings. Congress finds: (1) The Second Amendment says the people’s right to keep and bear arms may not be infringed. (2) It protects individuals, including people outside militias and military service or training. (3) Lawsuits seek damages or other relief from firearms businesses for third parties’ misuse, including criminal misuse, of properly functioning products. (4) Federal, State*, and local laws heavily regulate firearm and ammunition manufacture, import, possession, sale, and use, including the listed Acts. (5) Lawful businesses engaged in interstate or foreign commerce should not be liable for harm caused by criminal or unlawful misuse* of properly functioning products. (6) Industry-wide liability for harm solely caused by others would abuse the legal system, reduce confidence in laws, threaten a constitutional right, risk destabilizing other lawful industries, and unreasonably burden commerce. (7) The described actions rely on theories without foundation in centuries of United States common law and jurisprudence; sustaining them could expand liability beyond what constitutional framers, Congress, or State legislatures contemplated and deprive citizens of Fourteenth Amendment protections. (8) Such actions try to use courts to bypass legislatures in regulating commerce, threatening separation of powers, federalism, State sovereignty, and comity.
(b) Purposes. The chapter seeks (1) to bar actions against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, importers, and trade associations for harm solely caused by others’ criminal or unlawful misuse of properly functioning products; (2) to preserve access to firearms and ammunition for lawful purposes, including hunting, self-defense, collecting, and competitive or recreational shooting; (3) to guarantee the stated Fourteenth Amendment rights under section 5; (4) to prevent unreasonable commerce burdens from such lawsuits; (5) to protect listed businesses’ and associations’ First Amendment rights to speak, assemble, and petition; (6) to preserve separation of powers, federalism, State sovereignty, and comity; and (7) to exercise Congress’s Full Faith and Credit Clause power.
Congress finds the following:
The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the rights of individuals, including those who are not members of a militia or engaged in military service or training, to keep and bear arms.
Lawsuits have been commenced against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers of firearms that operate as designed and intended, which seek money damages and other relief for the harm caused by the misuse of firearms by third parties, including criminals.
The manufacture, importation, possession, sale, and use of firearms and ammunition in the United States are heavily regulated by Federal, State*, and local laws. Such Federal laws include the Gun Control Act of 1968, the National Firearms Act [26 U.S.C. 5801 et seq.], and the Arms Export Control Act [22 U.S.C. 2751 et seq.].
Businesses in the United States that are engaged in interstate and foreign commerce through the lawful design, manufacture, marketing, distribution, importation, or sale to the public of firearms or ammunition products that have been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce are not, and should not, be liable for the harm caused by those who criminally or unlawfully misuse firearm products or ammunition products that function as designed and intended.
The possibility of imposing liability on an entire industry for harm that is solely caused by others is an abuse of the legal system, erodes public confidence in our Nation’s laws, threatens the diminution of a basic constitutional right and civil liberty, invites the disassembly and destabilization of other industries and economic sectors lawfully competing in the free enterprise system of the United States, and constitutes an unreasonable burden on interstate and foreign commerce of the United States.
The liability actions commenced or contemplated by the Federal Government, States, municipalities, and private interest groups and others are based on theories without foundation in hundreds of years of the common law and jurisprudence of the United States and do not represent a bona fide expansion of the common law. The possible sustaining of these actions by a maverick judicial officer or petit jury would expand civil liability in a manner never contemplated by the framers of the Constitution, by Congress, or by the legislatures of the several States. Such an expansion of liability would constitute a deprivation of the rights, privileges, and immunities guaranteed to a citizen of the United States under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The liability actions commenced or contemplated by the Federal Government, States, municipalities, private interest groups and others attempt to use the judicial branch to circumvent the Legislative branch of government to regulate interstate and foreign commerce through judgments and judicial decrees thereby threatening the Separation of Powers doctrine and weakening and undermining important principles of federalism, State sovereignty and comity between the sister States.
The purposes of this chapter are as follows:
To prohibit causes of action against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers of firearms or ammunition products, and their trade associations, for the harm solely caused by the criminal or unlawful misuse* of firearm products or ammunition products by others when the product functioned as designed and intended.
To preserve a citizen’s access to a supply of firearms and ammunition for all lawful purposes, including hunting, self-defense, collecting, and competitive or recreational shooting.
To guarantee a citizen’s rights, privileges, and immunities, as applied to the States, under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, pursuant to section 5 of that Amendment.
To prevent the use of such lawsuits to impose unreasonable burdens on interstate and foreign commerce.
To protect the right, under the First Amendment to the Constitution, of manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers of firearms or ammunition products, and trade associations, to speak freely, to assemble peaceably, and to petition the Government for a redress of their grievances.
To preserve and protect the Separation of Powers doctrine and important principles of federalism, State sovereignty and comity between sister States.
To exercise congressional power under article IV, section 1 (the Full Faith and Credit Clause) of the United States Constitution.
Source credit: (Pub. L. 109–92, § 2, Oct. 26, 2005, 119 Stat. 2095.)
- 2005Enacted · Pub. L. 109-92 · 119 Stat. 2095
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 109-92 on 2005-10-26.
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