Virginia Attorney General Jay “Two Bullets” Jones is assembling a team of attorneys whose mission is to target gun shops, distributors, and gun makers with civil litigation meant to put them out of business.
The new section of the Attorney General’s office is the result of SB 27, which allows the AG, counties, towns, and individuals to sue firearm industry members who violate “standards of responsible conduct.” Those standards aren’t well-defined in the law, and are written broadly enough that dealers are supposed to be able to judge the intent of every gun buyer. If a customer goes on to break the law, the gun dealer could be held financially responsible.
Some retailers, like Jacob Hall of Jon’s Guns in Bristol, Virginia, wonder how they are supposed to know someone’s intentions, especially if they intend to break the law.
“I think they are just trying to get gun shops, distribution and firearms out of Virginia. I think it’s just completely anti-second amendment at this point,” Hall said.
Hall says they have been given little guidance from anyone on these new laws.
Of course they haven’t received much guidance. The goal of the new law isn’t to give gun dealers, makers, and distributors clear bright lines to follow. The law’s vagueness is a feature, not a bug. If firearms industry members don’t have a definition of “reasonable controls,” then it’s much easier to sue them for practices that are supposedly unreasonable.
The legislative summary for SB 27 has a laundry list of things that can get firearm industry members in trouble, but no information whatsoever on what constitutes “reasonable controls.
[R]easonable controls include reasonable procedures, safeguards, and business practices that are designed to (i) prevent the sale or distribution of a firearm-related product to a straw purchaser, a firearm trafficker, a person prohibited from possessing a firearm under state or federal law, or a person who the firearm industry member has reasonable cause to believe is at substantial risk of using a firearm-related product to harm themselves or unlawfully harm another or of unlawfully possessing or using a firearm-related product; (ii) prevent the loss of a firearm-related product or theft of a firearm-related product from a firearm industry member; (iii) ensure that the firearm industry member complies with all provisions of state and federal law and does not otherwise promote the unlawful manufacture, sale, possession, marketing, or use of a firearm-related product; (iv) prevent the installation and use of an auto sear on firearm-related products; and (v) ensure that the firearm industry member does not engage in an act or practice in violation of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act. The bill also provides that a firearm industry member may not knowingly create, maintain, or contribute to a public nuisance, as defined in the bill, through the sale, manufacturing, importing, or marketing of a firearm-related product.
If someone breaks into your gun shop and steals firearms, then Jones can argue you didn’t take “reasonable” steps to prevent the theft. If an FFL sells a firearm that’s later used in a crime, Jones can sue the gun dealer for ignoring the signs that would lead someone to “reasonably conclude” the buyer had nefarious intentions in mind. If they sell (or produce) arms that can be illegally modified to fire full auto, they can be sued for not preventing the installation and use of an auto sear.
Even when definitions are provided, they’re so vague that they’re essentially meaningless. Firearm industry members can be sued for creating, maintaining, or contributing to a public nuisance, which is defined as any “condition that injures, endangers, or threatens to injure or endanger or contributes to the injury or endangerment of the health, safety, peace, comfort, or convenience of others or otherwise constitutes a public nuisance under common law.”
By that definition, making, distributing, or selling any gun that’s later used in a crime or suicide would allow the AG to sue.
Hall is right that this bill is meant to make it so legally dangerous to make, sell, or distribute firearms in Virginia that people like him will throw in the towel.
As a Virginian, I’m disgusted that we’re wasting taxpayer dollars on this legislative abomination. As a Second Amendment supporter, I’d like to see Hall and other firearm industry members sue the state over SB 27, but a legal challenge might have to wait until Jones actually brings suit against a gun dealer or company.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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