Longtime readers of the Post-Gazette editorial page know that this newspaper favors meaningful controls on the purchase of firearms. So why do we support legislation passed by the U.S. House with the support of the National Rifle Association?
Simple: Because the way to control guns is through criminal statutes and regulations with teeth, not with the hit-or-miss weapon of a tort lawsuit.
By a 285-140 vote, the House earlier this month passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which is aimed at the increasingly popular notion of suing gun manufacturers in civil court for injuries and deaths caused by the criminal use of their products.
As with tort actions in other areas, liability lawsuits against gun manufacturers are attractive, especially to cash-poor cities, because they can yield large money damages. And the level of evidence required to hold a defendant civilly responsible is less than is required for a conviction in a criminal case.
The legislation passed by the House does not rule out all civil suits against gun sellers and manufacturers. They could still be sued if they had been convicted of criminally supplying a gun used in a crime or if they had willfully violated a state or federal statute governing the sale or marketing of firearms. People injured by guns also could bring suit on the basis of mechanical defects.
What the legislation would rule out is the indirect remedy of suing gun manufacturers because of someone else's criminal misuse of a legal product -- an end run around personal responsibility even more audacious than the much-mocked lawsuits against fast-food restaurants for "making" their customers obese.
As we said in a previous editorial on this subject, if gun manufacturers are recklessly marketing their products, Congress and state legislatures should pass more stringent laws to restrict them. If it is believed that guns lack safety devices, enact a law mandating such equipment.
But don't allow the tort system to become a backdoor way to deal with gun violence. That problem is better addressed directly.
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