General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How Bernie Sanders Helped Derail a Promising Legal Fight Against Gun Violence [View all]thucythucy
(8,069 posts)The gun industry needs this exceptional protection to keep it from being bled dry by frivolous lawsuits. But then too, the gun industry needs this exceptional protection to keep innocent victims of gun violence from being exploited by the evil machinations of the Brady organization, who will end up bearing the cost of these worthless lawsuits. How terrifically decent of gun manufacturers to care so deeply about the victims of the violence that is such an integral part of their profitability. Good thing those folks are prevented from having their day in court. Their rights are being truncated, sure, but it's for their own damn good!
Why doesn't the Brady organization help this family? I dunno. I suspect I might be because they don't have the obscenely deep pockets of the gun industry and the NRA.
Again, if all there is is "a correlation of raw numbers" then the courts and/or jurors would have ruled against the plaintiffs, with no need to carve out this exceptional, nearly unprecedented legal protection.
I don't think we can make any more progress in this discussion. Absent court proceedings and all they entail--discovery of evidence, subpoenas and motions and counter motions, testimony under oath, examination and cross examination of expert witnesses--we'll never know for certain whether or not these lawsuits would have prevailed.
Which is, of course, precisely why this protection was carved out for the gun industry in the first place.