Come on. No one really thought New York’s granny-killing governor wouldn’t sign a bill into law that attacks the foundations of the remaining gun business in the Empire State in a new and pernicious way…did they? That is, in fact, what he proudly did today.
In his signing statement, The Love Gov just couldn’t help parroting the same lie that President Biden is so fond of telling whenever the subject of gun makers comes up.
“Of all the challenges we face every day in New York, few are as difficult to bear as the scourge of gun violence plaguing our communities,” Governor Cuomo said.”The only industry in the United States of America immune from lawsuits are the gun manufacturers, but we will not stand for that any longer.” …
Under this new legislation, gun manufacturers cannot endanger the safety and health of the public through the sale, manufacturing, importing or marketing of the products they sell. The products can be considered a public nuisance even if the gun manufacturer did not purposely cause harm to the public. The Attorney General and any city corporation counsel can take action on behalf of any locality, as can members of the public, corporations and associations.
Gun makers, of course, have never been immune to lawsuits. Ask New York-based Remington about that. The only protection they’ve had — the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act — is against lawfare attacks from gun control groups and the plaintiff bar when their products that have been legally produced and sold were later used in the commission of a crime.
The purpose of New York’s new law is to pierce that protection and sue gun makers into bankruptcy. Attorneys from Everytown, Brady, and Giffords are salivating in anticipation. As a result, look for the state’s remaining gun makers to make a hasty exit taking jobs and investments with them . . .
Ilion-based Remington is watching what happens very closely. Kimber has relocated and Dark Storm Industries is doing so as well. Check-Mate Industries, a handgun and rifle magazine and other firearm accessories manufacture, pulled up roots, too and there are others.
All told, the remaining firearm industry footprint in New York in 2021 totals more than 8,600 direct jobs paying nearly $726 million in wages and an economic output of more than $2.3 billion.
Gun makers have been operating in New York for well over two centuries. Remington’s been there since 1816. With the signing of the public nuisance law, those days would seem to be numbered.
UPDATE:
The NSSF has announced that they’ll be challenging the new New York law . . .
The National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®) will challenge to overturn the law signed by New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo that would allow civil lawsuits by municipalities against the firearm industry for the criminal actions by non-associated third parties.
The law is in contravention to federal law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), and the legal foundations of tort law.
“This law is unconstitutional, plain and simple. It is abhorrent that Governor Cuomo is rehashing a decades-old failed playbook that was rejected by courts in the 1990’s and early 2000’s,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “Governor Cuomo is, again, blameshifting for his administration’s failures to prevent crime by pointing fingers at firearm manufacturers that have been working with federal, state and local authorities for real solutions.® This law is based on the same legal understanding that would allow victims of drunk drivers to sue Ford and Budweiser for the criminal actions of an individual. This law is not legal accountability. It is political posturing.”
Gov. Cuomo signed the law after repeating the same debunked talking points churned out by President Joe Biden. Gov. Cuomo claimed the firearm industry is the only industry immune to lawsuits. That worn-out myth was discredited by The Washington Post and Fact Check.org. Politifact called them “False” in 2015 when failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton attempted to pass along the debunked information.
Gov. Cuomo knows this history and the record of courts dismissing these lawsuits before PLCAA passed with by a broad bipartisan consensus in 2005. Gov. Cuomo, when serving as President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, got involved when he organized dozens of local housing authorities to bring their own lawsuits against gunmakers and threatened the industry with “death by a thousand cuts.”
This was his admission these lawsuits lacked legal foundation and amounted to harassment through litigation.
Legal Professor Victor Schwartz, who literally wrote the textbook on tort law, former law professor and law school dean and the current co-chairman of the Public Policy Group of the law firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon, recently authored an op-ed setting the record straight on PLCAA. He wrote, “The PLCAA remains a commonsense law that protects against unsound attempts to change radically a fundamental liability law principle.”
Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, wrote in The Hill of the PLCAA, “The bill saved the industry some litigation costs, but the industry would have prevailed in such actions anyway if they were tried. Product liability and tort actions against manufacturers have uniformly and correctly been rejected by the courts.”
To learn more of the history of PLCAA, what the law does and doesn’t do and other industries with similar protections, read NSSF’s Primer on Repealing PLCAA.
No sympathy, empathy, entropy for firearms manufacturers who bitterly cling to their facilities in NY. Stupid is as stupid does.
It’s a hugely complex and expensive undertaking to uproot two centuries of manufacturing capability and move it all somewhere else. Such a move, which would stop/slow production for weeks or even months, could break a company if its coffers aren’t full enough or its profits aren’t high enough to get through the transition. Empathy, in my opinion, is warranted.
“It’s a hugely complex and expensive undertaking to uproot two centuries of manufacturing capability and move it all somewhere else.”
It’s not as if they they didn’t have 50+ years of warnings; 50+ years to plan for the inevitable.
The manufacturers remaining in NY rolled the political/economic dice; they lost.
Agreed. There is no reason why Remington and others are still located in NY or CT or any other anti-gun state. They would be more than welcome in gun friendly states. NRA included. Still incorporated in NY state? Then you deserve whatever legal problems your short-sightedness has created for you.
It’s unconstitutional, illegal, as well as uncouth and idiotic. It’s the shooter that should be sued for their violent crime/deaths, not the gun manufacturer/s.
This is merely Commie Cuomo’s way of relieving the murderers of being held responsible for their crimes. Cuomo’s agenda will only increase mass murders. Not stop them. Par for the course for democrats.
As stupid as assuming the entire population of the state is supporting these idiots like Cuomo instead of getting outvoted due to the sheer size of NYC.
I’m a recent escapee from NY, and you’re correct: much of the state is actually pretty conservative and pro 2A, but we are outvoted in almost all elections above the local level and some house districts. Moving away has become the last remaining option for many of us. It’s hard enough to move as an individual – a lot harder to move a whole company with dozens, hundreds, or 1000+ employees.
Napresto
So true. When the factories close many older employees will not move,they will retire. So much knowledge won’t make the move to the new facility. That is exactly the story where I live the jobs left but the older timers didn’t.
“As stupid as assuming the entire population of the state is supporting these idiots like Cuomo instead of getting outvoted due to the sheer size of NYC.”
No one is, yet, forced to live in NYS/NYC. The rub is that people want convenience. If the politics of NYS/NYC are so intolerable to a significant number of people, why stay? Don’t tell me about family, jobs, whatever. This nation moved westward to escape conditions in big cities, and the politics. The pioneers left home and hearth to carve out a new beginning, knowing there would be enormous hardships. In our time, people make all sorts of excuses for not bearing hardship.
Isn’t it curious that the people most likely to leave hellholes like Californication, and New Jerk are the ones who actually like everything about those places, except the weather. If such migrations were not considered attractive, we wouldn’t see the march of blue-staters into formerly red states. The loss of congressional representatives in New York, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, Michigan and West Virginia, as a result of the 2020 elections, are not suffering because hordes of blue-state opponents left those states. Moving great amounts of Dims out of a state (to prey on other states) can result in congressional seats eliminated one place being transferred to another.
“Don’t tell me about family, jobs, whatever…”
Translation: “I choose to ignore the biggest reasons people find it difficult or impossible to move out of a state that they don’t like.”
It’s all ABOUT family and jobs, man, and these aren’t so easy to cast aside! People train or compete for years in specializations that exist only in certain geographic areas. People have relatives to care for who simply can’t live without them. Some people aren’t interested in vacating their home – maybe even think of doing so as retreating – simply because a political party has gained total power in what is otherwise a beautiful state.
It’s not the weather that’s convincing people to leave NY, etc. It’s a calculation: what will this move cost me, vs. what will I gain? The answer looks different for everyone, but jobs and family are at the top of the list.
I think, on the whole, it’s mostly freedom loving people moving out of the blue states. I’ve personally talked to quite a few Yanks in the past couple of years that purchased land in the south, and they’ve all been cool.
1 to Napresto
It’s more than just NY based manufacturers. It makes NY State forbidden territory for anyone associated with the firearms industry world wide. The bill he signed is S.7196.
You’ll have to google it since TTAG doesn’t like URL’s in posts.
“It’s more than just NY based manufacturers.”
Indeed. I was responding directly to the segment of the original post that addressed gun manufacturers specifically.
Thought that might be the case. On the upside, we should see a much better profit margin on private sales to complete strangers here in MS. 😉
Then you should give them the millions it will take to move to another state, to build and train new people on the new machinery.
Plus the down time and money lost.
Not so easy when it’s your money.
“Then you should give them the millions it will take to move to another state, to build and train new people on the new machinery.
Plus the down time and money lost.
Not so easy when it’s your money.”
As already noted, NY gun manufacturers were not suddenly surprised by a 180 degree turn in NY politics. Part of responsible business ownership is strategic planning. Part of strategic planning is looking for ways to prosper your company and your employees.
And yes, as a shareholder, moving to a safer political location is my money. With NY now declaring a public disaster (via executive order), I am cashing out.
What he said ☝️
Courts will decide this one. Since it violates Federal law and Federal Law supersedes State law. This law as well as State 2nd A Sanctuary Laws and Federal Firearms Preemption Laws like Texas just enacted will eventually force the Supreme Court to set Precedent. If not the Road to the next UnCivil War will quickly be paved in the blood of Patriots, Politicians, Bureaucrats and Tyrants. Not since the the Civil War has Our Nation been so divided and even then the divide was based on fewer issues than today. With the divide being so evenly split among the populace I see little chance of the Nation ever coming together again for a Common Cause or Purpose. I Truly believe the Test that was put forward in 1784 has come to it’s End with Failure being the answer. “We the People” have Met the Enemy and It Is Us.
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything”. As We watch the very Foundations of Our Nation being taken apart. One stone at a time. Ours may well be the Last generation with the wherewithal to stop the destruction. If not the Freest Nation in the history of Mankind will be relegated to the dust bin of history. To only be whispered about in Fear and the Darkness of Tyranny by those who still remember. Gladly for me I’m an old man whose had a good life and enjoyed the Freedoms so many fought, suffered and died that I could partake of. I have little fear of the Death that will come to me at some point. What I fear is the world I leave for my children and their children’s children. Will it be a World of Freedom and boundless opportunities that I have had or a world of conformity and fear of Cancel Culture, Government Overreach and the Tyranny of Unbridled Control. These are the things that should be of concern to all Free Men, but alas far to many have grown fat and lazy on the fruits pasted down by past generations, Not willing accept the charge handed down unto the to Protect and Preserve the Freedoms and Liberties by the blood of generations past. So maybe it is time that Our Nation of Freedoms come to an end. As there seems to be few left to guard them from those you wish them destroyed. When you lay your heads down tonight for sleep. Contemplate the true meaning of freedom and costs of it’s care. Then decide what world you wish for your descendants. Doing so with the knowledge that with choices you make may well decide their destiny. Sleep Well and May peace Be With You.
@Darkman
“Not since the the Civil War has Our Nation been so divided and even then the divide was based on fewer issues than today. ”
“Well, Peter, this is what comes of empire building.”
-Harry “Breaker” Morant”
Your fiction writing skills seem wasted here.
The way to solve this is for all major firearms manufacturers to refuse to sell to state or local agencies located in these areas. Yes, that doesn’t mean that the NYPD can’t obtain sidearms, or the New York National Guard won’t be able to source rifles, but it will be significantly more difficult and expensive for them to do so. If all the manufacturers relocate to states that don’t actively seek to destroy them, then states like NY, MA and HI will have to spend the money they would have used to buy votes on guns to keep their citizens (who voted for this, and thus are somewhat complicit) from rioting when the spigot of free stuff starts to slow down.
I wish we had a compact that stated “we will not sell any firearms to law enforcement that would be illegal for a civilian to own.”
Agreed, yet no one will seem to stand up.
Yup.
In addition to individual sales, Barrett can equip your unit, department, or agency with our weapons. … Barrett will not sell to or service any California or New York government agencies. Law Enforcement prices reflect Federal Excise Tax Exemption.
Is moving an option to avoid being sued? Is this new law only allowing the suing of NY companies by New Yorkers?
I think it would allow a suit to be filed in NY against any gun manufacturer in any state, as long as the “nuisance” gun was a “nuisance” in NY.
Look for this to be contested in court.
Exactly. The idea here is to force states to recognize NYS laws. If a gun manufactured in some other state is used in a crime in NYS, the victim can Sur for damages in am NY court and win. The law is expect in that. I hope it is over turned but I doubt it.
Winning in court may be easier than enforcing the judgement. If a non-NY gun manufacturer just refuses to pay, can NY make them? That separation alone seems well worth moving operations out of state.
That’s what Ronnie and Chris Barrett of Barrett Firearms, Inc. fame did with at least California.
“Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.” Jefferson
Law enforcement officers are also civilian.
Seeing as US military cannot be used as a police force except during a war on American soil, they should be considered civilians also shouldn’t they? Only government employees.
“Seeing as US military cannot be used as a police force except during a war on American soil…”
There’s this:
Clause 15. The Congress shall have Power * * * To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.
“Insurrections” are war on America soil. (Armed insurrection, overthrowing tyranny, not “breaking and entering”)
Is that the army or the militia of 18 to 45 year old males?
Not just guns, but ammo too. Imagine no law enforcement agency in New York being able to buy rounds.
That’s exactly what Barrett does, and if the whole industry adopted that policy, I think we’d see some real change in thinking.
They should all leave. The towns they operate in will be ghost towns in short order.
Elections have consequences sadly.
I am in California so I feel their pain.
Oh well…who’s surprised? Who’s surprised the old guido suffered nearly nothing from killin’ old folks?
Wonder how Cuomo feels about not being able to sue Pfizer because their vaccine gave your 17-year-old son a heart attack and killed him.
I imagine he feels just as remorseless as he seems to feel about condemning thousands of elderly nursing home patients to death, about sexually harassing members of his staff, about showboating on TV with his dunce of a brother, and about depriving New Yorkers of their constitutionally guaranteed first and second amendment rights.
You forgot using state resources for the writing of his book (state employees on the clock) but yeah the amount of cover given to this “political outsider” is mind boggling. Hoping the new location is going well for you and yours.
Perhaps Fredo can ask his people to have a talk to the representatives of the five families in Tammany Hall and politely ask they cease and desist their nefarious activities.
This concept of suing manufacturers is going to backfire on the left.
As usual, they never think about the consequences.
The general public supporting Dims are truly “useful idiots”. Do not underestimate the leadership. “Unintended consequences” are a design feature.
Granny-killing female harassing degenerate with a queer (her words) daughter and a brother who is as dumb as a box of rocks.
New York voters, you are forked — and you deserve it.
I thought Roundhill was insane when they chose to keep the Remington plant in New York. Let the stampede begin because anyone remaining will soon be out of business.
But legitimate suits against him and his regime will be disallowed! Phukin criminals!!
True that. Needs to be prosecuted for blatantly ignoring a federal law that has been repeatedly upheld.
Hang him.
Guns are not a public nuisance under classic tort rules. Instead, they are a “remote cause” of injury, not a proximate cause. It isn’t the manufacture or sale of the gun (usually through middlemen and retailers, not by the manufacturer) but the illegal use of a gun. Criminal misconduct is under most circumstances considered a “superseding proximate cause” of an injury. Absent causation, liability typically does not attach. To conclude otherwise would be to allow any governmental entity to ban all firearms within the jurisdictional reach of their courts, a consequence that has severe Second Amendment implications.
Really all one need do is to attempt to apply the same nuisance illogic to mechanized transportation (cars and truck) that are responsible for more injuries and more deaths per year than firearms. Why do we accept that inherent risk and deem it not a nuisance? Because the machines have utility that exceeds the risk of injury or death. Guns do as well, no matter how vehemently the banners deny it.
Mark,
Why are you using reason and logic?
The purpose of these laws has nothing to do with public nuisance, criminals, terrorism, or any other reason they may give.
They want to control and oppress the citizens.
They can only oppress people who have guns so much before they start shooting back.
So the citizens have to be disarmed before they can truly be oppressed.
Cuomo sees New Yorkers as subjects who bow to HIS every whim.
Add that to the list of reasons why the marxists don’t like home built firearms. Much harder to sue and when you do there is nothing there. I am sure eventually a home built gun will get used in a suable way and then armies of lawyers will try to go after the 3d printing company or the supplier of the 80% lower (if those are even around anymore). Funny how they never seem to go after middlemen like Walmart and Dick’s. Could they even sue government entities like China/Norinco, Russia, CMP, etc.? Rule 35.5 of the internet/life probably. If a lawyer has not tried yet one will eventually.
With the first lawsuit, every gun manufacturer should issue a recall on every serial number sold to NYS agencies and then hold onto them.
That’s actually a kind of awesome idea, they probably have the records for it. Hold on to em for the duration of the lawsuits.
If you really wanted to anger them take the NYC 12lb triggers and fix those before sending em back!
Can not endanger the health and welfare, ,,,,,, I can still buy a pack of smokes in New York cant I? Thatd suck if some company couldn’t sell me cigarettes as I cough my lungs out on a street corner.
Now these cars, does this one come with a no fatal accidents guarantee.
If I give you my gunm do I get a pet cop?
IF THE Gun Manufacturers Would stop SELLING Guns AND AMMO to the NYPD, That would make a Huge Difference. If They Would do this to states that are Against their business then the states would find it difficult to justify their laws if they don’t have guns or ammo to use.
They want to defund the cops anyway. Refusing to sell guns and ammo to the cops makes their money worthless. Let them use Russian and Turkish guns.
Simply put. Stop doing any business in those states. The law is based on doing business within NYS. When the government pays more they just raise taxes and New Yorkers don’t mind taxes. Stop selling to all with a NYS address and then the politicians will be voted out.
Meanwhile, TTAG is advertising for a shield made in California.
@gunnygene
“On the upside, we should see a much better profit margin on private sales to complete strangers here in MS. ”
Oh, you dirty, running dog, lying pony soldier, capitalist pig, you.
Yeah. Ain’t it cool? 🙂 🙂
PS: One of my ancestors made a good living back around 1798-1815 or so, running British blockades of US merchant ships. I inherited a decent portion of his DNA. I don’t see much difference between his time and what NY and some other States are doing these days. And the results will be the same.
“And the results will be the same.”
Gunny….Waco was the “Lexington and Concord”, “Boston Massacre” of our time. The nation slept. We are so far beyond what the founders would have accepted.
People who think there will be a general uprising (armed uprising) against government completely overlook the fact that the founders had political leaders in the midst of the continental government. People knew who those leaders were. The colonies had functioning, combat experienced militias in open formations.
I simply cannot endorse the notion that today there are citizens willing to walk through snow without shoes in order to attack Trenton and Princeton in dead of winter. Yes, there are likely a few who would/could do that; but a vanishing few. They do not make up approximately 1/3rd of the adult population. Our real armaments are ideas, principles, broadcast media, social media, ballot boxes. In that struggle, we have at best a stalemate. We have become comfortable frogs.
Cuomo does not do his homework. He seems to forget that Reagan gave the vaccine industry 100-percent immunity from getting sued, as well, back in 1986. The gun industry is not the only one shielded from liability.
“Translation: “I choose to ignore the biggest reasons people find it difficult or impossible to move out of a state that they don’t like.” ”
Yes. As I noted, the people who opened up the entire country did what they had to do to get where they wanted to be. Tough decisions are anathema to modern America.
Reluctance to move to a more politically friendly state is why I keep saying “comes the revolution” is deranged fantasy. People who won’t bear the hardship of moving out of hellholes are going to gear up, and risk their lives over the same issues?
Water, heat, frogs? We are seeing it happen in living color. We don’t have the votes to electorally turn things around, nor the old fashioned gumption to vote with our feet. We are who we are, including me. Time to drop the pretense of being direct descendants of the nation’s founders. Instead of chest-beating and sloganeering, we need a revival of the culture. One-on-one, door-by-door, block-by-block. Truth is we are consumed with being law-abiding citizens, providing for our families, daily living. We keep America functioning. It is a full-time, 24/7 job. The parasites of the left have the advantage.
White cop in New York shoots an innocent non white person. Lawsuit against the gun maker follows.
Me grabs huge bucket of popcorn.
I’m smart. Not like everybody says…. like dumb. I’m smart and I want respect.
When are gun and ammo manufacturers simply going to stop serving California and New York?
Serbu and Barrett have taken a stand. The entire industry needs to stop servicing the governments in these states until they realize they need the industry more than the industry needs them.
All firearm companies need to boycott all law enforcement Agencies in New York California and other anti-Second Amendment states..except for Glock… Glock would sell firearms to Satan himself..
people need to stop supporting the law Enforcement agencies that enforce their communist laws too..any LE agencies that confiscate weapons for the state governments lives don’t matter..
Lawyers need to line up and start suing auto companies for the actions of drunk drivers and other negligent operators that kill people.
They need to sue every fast food chain, restaurant, and supermarket chain for the diseases caused by the foods they sell.
Sue every distillery and brewery.
Under equal protection, the law would apply to ALL goods and service providers for all 3rd party actions.
The “gun industry” needs to stop selling to anyone in the state of New York. Or at least stop selling to anyone who works for the State, City, County, and any local government of the state of New York.
No guns, no ammo, no holsters, no gun belts, no gun accessories of any type should be sold to any government person in the state of New York. Also no training classes should be held in the state of New York. Or at least deny all training to New York government personnel.
Will it happen? I doubt it.
But there are people who will support a boycott of a state that bans men from using a woman’s bathroom. They supported a boycott against the Boy Scouts.
@Dude
“I think, on the whole, it’s mostly freedom loving people moving out of the blue states.”
Not to disappoint, but….
Still have friends in Texas. Every major city is run by Dims. Sound familiar? In Texas, deep purple has fallen. The immigrants are mostly from northeast, Californication, and SOTB. Friends in Colorado tell me the state (Denver) is becoming far east SF.
If immigrants to states are not Trump* supporters, are not 2A activists, they bear considerable watching.
*Convinced that the political establishment is inherently anti-American, leftists are ruining the nation, Republicrats still think it is 1950, foreign nations drain our resources and return virtually nothing, job outsourcing will lead to the US being a serf of China, America first policies are rational, and so on.
I’ve thought for over 40 years, that any Gun or Ammo Manufacturer that hasn’t moved from the New England region suffers from a serious lack of Foresight. This crap has been years coming down the pike.
Only an Idiot stays where the State doesn’t want them, and actively and with malice aforethought, works against them.
We should all just fight the legal battle and the communication battle as best we can especially by calling and writing the State and Federal Representatives and State Senators. Plus attending all of the community get togethers where the Politicians come to meet and great and let them know in no uncertain words that their support for the Legislation and any infringement on the 2nd Amendment Rights will get them an express exit through the closest door to unemployment.
Coumo just another power hungry Democrat a$$hole!!!
My favorite gun company, Dan Wesson, is there. I hope they get out before any real harm happens to them. I have 5 of their 1911’s and would hate to see them be affected. Because they’re totally contributing to this “nuisance” with all of the gangbangers using $1k+ 1911’s and revolvers.
Any business, corporation,partnership or individual operation having anything to do with firearms and or ammunition making and or sale that willingly remains within the borders of New York State richly deserves the screwing that they will be getting. End of story.
Dear NY based manufacturers:
We welcome you with open arms and low taxes. Please bring your employees with you.
Love,
New Hampshire
It would seem that setting lawsuits as a response to lawlessness would open Love Gov up to lawsuits in kind for not controlling the lawlessness. That is his jobs, right.
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