LIABILITY PROTECTIONS FOR GUN MANUFACTURERS AND DISTRIBUTORS
WHEREAS, Congress is considering legislation (HR 1036/S 659), the "Protection in Lawful
Commerce in Arms Act", to shield those irresponsible elements of the firearms industry who create
unreasonable threats to public safety from common law liability that state courts have applied to
both the firearms industry and all other industries that market potentially hazardous
instrumentalities; and
WHEREAS, evidence shows that there are a small proportion of "underworld" dealers where
criminals go to buy guns. According to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
(BATF), about 1 percent of dealers are responsible for about 58 percent of all guns used in crime.
Undercover investigations performed throughout the country confirm that many of these dealers
willingly sell firearms even when the purchasers make plain that they are gunrunners seeking
firearms for drug dealers, criminal street gangs, or other unlawful purposes; and
WHEREAS, gun manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, except for Smith & Wesson, have
refused to set any standards for responsible sales practices and they have continued to supply these
"underworld" dealers; and
WHEREAS, litigation against underworld firearms dealers and their supplies is a particularly
valuable method of reducing the supply of firearms to criminals because such litigation targets only
those who are proven to have irresponsibly supplied firearms to criminals or to the underworld
dealers that supply them; and
WHEREAS, the legislation would give "underworld" dealers and their suppliers legal protection
from lawsuits by providing unprecedented special immunity to the firearms industry that is not
provided to manufacturers or suppliers of other products; and
WHEREAS, the legislation would not only prospectively ban lawsuits against negligent actions by
certain gun manufacturers, it would also invalidate the pending lawsuits of 40 municipalities and
numerous victims of negligent gun manufacturers that are currently in the judicial process; and
WHEREAS, while advocates of this legislation claim that it is needed to free the firearms industry
from "frivolous" litigation, the Supreme Court of Ohio, the Appellate Courts of Illinois and New
Jersey, and trial courts in a variety of other jurisdictions have ruled that the lawsuits this legislation
would preempt in fact have merit, and raise important questions about the actions of the particular
firearms manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers that have been sued in those cases,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED the Conference of Mayors opposes, and urges
Congress not to enact, HR 1036/S 659, the "Protection in Lawful Commerce in Arms Act."
©2003 U.S. Conference of Mayors 
