Reynaldo Mena
A bill that passed out of the Assembly on Thursday night would make the marketing of firearms to children and those not legally allowed to possess them a civil liability. AB 1594 would allow lawsuits against gun manufacturers based on their marketing, one of the few exemptions to a federal ban on such lawsuits. The bill is now in the hands of the Senate.
Brought by San Francisco Democrat Phil Ting, the bill is an attempt to ensure that gun manufacturers can’t object in state court to lawsuits that target their marketing – an argument Smith & Wesson made in a San Diego court last year.
The proposal is similar to a bill passed last year in New York – one that survived a legal challenge from guns rights advocates in federal court on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, it seems like not a day goes by before there’s another tragic mass shooting,” Ting said. “We have guns in the hands of the wrong people and we have an industry that takes no responsibility for empowering killers in our community.”
