Special Report: Gun Lobby's "Fellow Travelers" Equate Firearms Industry With Communists

In yet another indication of the pariah status of America's gun industry, representatives of the major pro-tort "reform" organizations are scrambling to distance themselves from the firearms industry. In a recent exchange of letters with the Violence Policy Center (VPC) in Legal Times, Victor Schwartz�a partner at the Washington law firm of Crowell and Moring and a lobbyist for business interests seeking federal laws restricting consumer product liability lawsuits�charged VPC Director of Federal Policy Kristen Rand of "�shoot from the hip' McCarthyism" for pointing out that the gun industry is listed as a member of several business groups formed to advocate for tort restriction legislation. Apparently, in Mr. Schwartz's view, an alliance with the gun industry carries the same negative connotations as consorting with Communists did in the 1950s.

Pro-tort "reform" groups such as the Product Liability Coordinating Council (PLCC) and the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) have for years lobbied to restrict the rights of consumers in product liability litigation. And all the while the gun industry has been at their side advocating restrictions on lawsuits against gun manufacturers and dealers. Currently, these forces are pushing a bill (S. 648) that would establish an absolute cap of $250,000 on punitive damages in lawsuits against some major junk gun manufacturers, eliminate any liability for guns manufactured before 1979, and virtually eliminate civil liability for gun dealers who sell firearms in violation of state or federal law.

The VPC has been at the forefront of documenting the involvement and influence of the gun industry and the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the product liability debate and in the business coalitions that fund the tort restriction effort. The VPC works with a coalition of consumer, labor, and attorney organizations to expose the dangers that such legislation would pose to gun consumers and victims of firearms violence. In 1994, the VPC and Consumers Union, during Senate consideration of a tort restriction bill, first exposed the negative effects that federal product liability legislation would have on lawsuits against gun dealers who knowingly sell firearms to minors and criminals. The VPC and Consumers Union labeled the bill the "Gun Dealers' Protection Act," which helped to assure its defeat on Senate floor.

Individual gun companies including Sturm, Ruger & Co., Browning, and Colt, as well as gun industry trade groups such as the American Shooting Sports Council (ASSC) belong to a variety of tort "reform" lobby groups. However, representatives of the tort "reform" groups themselves, including the PLCC and ATRA, recognize the extreme negative connotations of being perceived as lobbyists for the gun industry. They consistently deny any involvement with gun industry representatives despite overwhelming evidence that the firearms industry is intimately involved in the business coalitions pushing for tort "reform."

For example, Victor Schwartz, who in addition to representing the PLCC serves as general counsel to ATRA, took the time to address attendees at the American Shooting Sports Council's annual lobby day on Capitol Hill in 1995. Schwartz's briefing on pending federal tort "reform" legislation was presented to a gathering of assault weapon and junk gun manufacturers, gun dealers, and importers, and was well-covered in the pages of the New Gun Week. But in an August 8, 1997 letter to Legal Times, Schwartz strained to distance himself from the ASSC claiming that ASSC's membership in ATRA was immaterial because Schwartz did not counsel ATRA on federal product liability legislation. Schwartz has repeatedly denied that he has even ever met any gun industry representatives. In a separate letter printed the same day, Patrick Rowland of the PLCC insisted, "We are under no direction by gun manufacturers or gun dealers in the development of our policy about federal product liability legislation."

Such dismissive treatment must be hard for the gun lobby to swallow since both the gun industry and the National Rifle Association (NRA) have put substantial lobbying muscle into influencing and supporting federal product liability legislation since the beginning of the debate in Congress.

As far back as 1983, the issue of tort "reform" was important enough to the NRA for it to make the cover of the May issue of the organization's American Rifleman magazine. The headline warned, "Product Liability Law: How It Is Being Used Against You." The accompanying article described an NRA-sponsored conference on "current trends in product liability law and their impact on gun owners." Attending the conference was then-Senator Bob Kasten (R-WI) who was, at the time, "leading a reform effort in Congress to create a uniform federal code dealing with product liability law." Subsequently, one of Senator Kasten's most oft-repeated examples of a product treated unfairly by the liability system was a defectively designed Sturm, Ruger & Co. revolver that has killed or injured more than 600 people in accidental discharges.

NRA and industry support of liability restrictions has remained constant through the years. In 1995, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told Guns and Ammo, in response to a question about the what the NRA was doing in the area of tort reform, that the NRA was "part of the coalition that is pursuing legislation...." Although, according to LaPierre, "the industry is certainly carrying the brunt of the issue."

In fact, both the NRA and the American Shooting Sports Council feel so strongly about tort reform that they highlighted the issue in their 1996 election materials. Just prior to the 1996 presidential election, the NRA issued a resolution from its board of directors decrying President Clinton's performance on gun-related issues. The resolution condemned the President because he "vetoed Federal tort reform legislation which would have ended outrageous lawsuits designed specifically to bankrupt firearms manufacturers, distributors, and dealers, thus depriving peaceable Americans of legitimate commence in firearms," and urged his ouster from office. A month earlier, the ASSC issued its ratings of congressional candidates based on six key pro-gun votes. One of those key votes was "support of federal product liability reform legislation...."

And Sturm, Ruger & Co. may be the most stalwart of the individual gun companies supporting federal tort "reform" legislation. The company regularly turns up on lists of organizations supporting product liability restrictions. In 1995, Ruger executive Stephen Sanetti sat on the board of directors of the Product Liability Advisory Council alongside executives from General Motors, Anheuser-Busch, and Boeing.

These are just a few examples of the significant role played by the gun lobby in the debate over federal product liability legislation. The VPC has compiled extensive evidence documenting the role of the gun industry and the NRA in the battle to limit consumer rights in product liability lawsuits. But it appears that no matter how much muscle the gun lobby puts behind federal tort "reform" legislation, its fellow travelers in the tort "reform" movement want nothing to do with them�at least in public.