This is great:
Gun maker Remington can be sued over how it marketed the Bushmaster rifle used to kill 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, a divided Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Justices issued a 4-3 decision that reinstated a wrongful death lawsuit and overturned a lower court ruling that the lawsuit was prohibited by a 2005 federal law that shields gun manufacturers from liability in most cases when their products are used in crimes.
The plaintiffs include a survivor and relatives of nine people killed in the massacre. They argue the AR-15-style rifle used by shooter Adam Lanza is too dangerous for the public and Remington glorified the weapon in marketing it to young people.
Remington has denied wrongdoing and previously insisted it can’t be sued under the federal law.
The majority of the high court agreed with most of the lower court’s ruling and dismissed most of the lawsuit’s allegations, but allowed a wrongful marketing claim to proceed.
Sue them, take all their money, and bankrupt the motherfuckers.
R-Jud
It’s the American way.
JPL
How soon will it be until Remington declares bankruptcy and walks away. I expect that the Roberts Court will hear it sooner rather than later though.
Martin
They’re pretty much all approaching bankruptcy now. The AR-15 is Remington’s only notably profitable product. So, it won’t take much from here.
PaulWartenberg
I think I saw a report that this week Dick’s Sporting Goods has finished clearing out their gun sales areas outright.
It won’t curtail the independent stores selling weapons like mad, but it’s a good first step.
The Democrats in Congress need to get rid of that unjust liability protection law for gunmakers. There has to be a constitutional argument to rule it illegal.
rikyrah
@PaulWartenberg:
Amen
trollhattan
1,000X yes! It’s the American Way.
Related: Arizona border town organizes to face down border militia.
Brickley Paiste
Mother legally purchases legal firearm. Son kills mother in her bed then shoots many others.
Solution: sue the company that made the gun.
Only in America.
trollhattan
Wait, Pie Day? I thought it was Pi Day.
Aleta
Media Matters seems to be keeping up the heat on FN advertisers; the last two days some people are putting up FN stupidity clips.
Aleta
This Monday a lake town in Western Maine is going to vote on whether to sell Tuck Carlson a pretty little town building. (The “historic town garage” — It looks a bit like a carriage house style.)
Afaict, I don’t believe the building was listed for sale, but he proposed to the council he would pay $30,000 (seems pretty fcking cheap if that includes the land).
He says he’ll repair/preserve the bld and that FN will pay to build a broadcasting studio inside. He has at least one backer on the council. Until now he has been renting the basement of the town library for his summer office ($2500/year, pretty fcking cheap) where he tapes shows when on vacation. To google: the town is Bryant Pond village in the Town of Woodstock; on Lake Christopher (aka Bryant Lake aka Pond.)
Grounds for my paranoia:
1–It reminds me of some other manipulations I’ve seen of small towns. The result turns out to be different from the proposal.
2–White male supremacist beacon in rural ME on the border w/ NH.
I think if Carlson gets fired before the weekend it could affect the vote. (He looks a bit nervous in recent clips.)
? ? So I’ll send a ? lobster ? to anyone who helps put the heat on Fox and advertisers to fire Carlson in the next 5 days. (Pet only — must go to good homes, after home visit, compatibility tests, etc.)
My plea is real.
trollhattan
@Aleta:
Heh!
1. Everybody knows it’s actually the walrus.
2. Does Kilmeade’s favorite cake-pie happen to be fashioned from Twinkies? (That fucking candle Romney video gets weirder with each viewing. Thanks, Utah.)
PaulWartenberg
@Brickley Paiste:
If the mother bought a sports car, and then the son stole the car from her, ran her over with it, and drove it into a school killing classrooms full of kids, and it turned out the car had safety features that could have prevented the theft, you’d sue the car makers.
The rifles and guns used in mass shootings could have a bunch of safety elements to prevent theft or accidental use, but gunmakers (and gun buyers) fight such efforts because if they did so the extremist gun nuts would not buy such guns. And because of a liability protection law for gunmakers, the gunmakers have been happily ignoring safety needs for decades.
Aleta
@trollhattan: It’s been perverted. Everything is supposed to cost $3.14 today, but as usual they’re buying us off with bad pizza.
White & Gold Purgatorian
So far, don’t see any reaction from the Bernie 2020 campaign to this Remington ruling. Inquiring minds want to know, and I sure wish some “journalists” would start asking him, if his position on victims sueing gunmakers has changed since 2016 and — what was it —2005?
Aleta
@trollhattan: Hint: He crushes on Dolley Madison.
Archon
Treating gun ownership with just a fraction of the bureaucratic rigmarole we treat vehicle ownership in this country would solve a lot of problems.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: Pie, Pi…all sounds the same to me.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: “The Walrus was Paul”*
*Glass Onion.
Aleta
@Aleta: scroll down for turban photo
http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=4
trollhattan
@Aleta:
Hubba-hubba*, Dolly!
(*Or whatever the 1817 equivalent may have been.)
Could be too much skin for Willard, though.
blackcatsrule
@Aleta: He backed out of that plan per Portland Press Herald website. Still a good idea to get him fired though but at least this “studio” bullshit is over for now.
Brachiator
Well, this should be interesting:
Mike in NC
Having a federal law protecting the merchants of death is a crime in and of itself.
trollhattan
@Archon:
Yup. I’ve used it with a few open-carry fetishists. “Have you seen how people drive?” “Yeah, not so good.” “Now imagine those same folks packin’ heat.” “Buh…it’s different, we’re the good guys.” “And we know this, how?” “Uhh.”
Brickley Paiste
@PaulWartenberg:
You mean like biometric features? There are very sound reasons to avoid those- hell- the fingerprint reader I used to have on my phone worked about 90% of the time. No big deal when the penalty is just swiping again.
Even if this tech was widely available on firearms- which it’s not – a better analogy would be suing Toyota because it sold a Corolla in 2012 that did not have lane keeping and automatic braking just because those things are widely available on certain cars today.
I’m opposed to pointless and ineffective regulation of firearms, but if that is what this country wants to do, we should be done through the legislature.
I really can’t see any logical distinction between suing the manufacturer of a legally purchased firearm and suing the manufacturer of a kitchen knife.
Brickley Paiste
@Archon:
I agree. It would be wonderful if there were rigorous background checks, licensing, and insurance requirements. Then I could walk into a gun store, flash my card and walk out with whatever I want
Now I have to show up, fill out paperwork, submit paperwork, pay for gun, then leave and come back in 10 days. Never mind that I have a gun safe full of guns at home, got to wait that magic 10 days. Does not even matter that I have a card allowing concealed carry for which I took classes and training.
Current system is idiotic.
geg6
@Brickley Paiste:
Well, except the fact that the kitchen knife isn’t sold with the one and only express purpose of killing people. Unlike, say, an AR-15.
geg6
@Brickley Paiste:
Sure is. Any system that allows people who aren’t in the military or law enforcement to own a fucking arsenal is idiotic.
Mike in DC
@Brickley Paiste: The reason why smart gun tech is not further along is because mainstream firearms manufacturers are fucking terrified of the NRA and gun nuts turning on them if they actually start making them.
Bill Arnold
@Aleta:
Thanks, was a little discouraged several days ago that media matters wasn’t keeping up with the fnn advertiser changes.
J R in WV
The Southern Poverty Law Center, in Alabama, has shut down quite a few White Supremacist groups by suing them into oblivion, bankrupting them, taking their real property, their bank accounts, their names and web addresses, everything but the fumes.
The day after the 2016 election, after we knew Trump had won the Electoral College vote if all the R electors voted the party line, Wife and I joined the ACLU and the SPLC.
Not long after that I ran into my only remaining cousin in WV at the grocery store, and chatting about the tragic political situation, we discovered he had done the same thing, when he showed me his ACLU card in his wallet. I was delighted to see that the family influence ran strong in both of us. Other cousins not so much… sadly.
I would hope that Remington gets hit with a big judgement/verdict, but I doubt it will stand and be paid. Unfortunately.
Betty Cracker
@geg6: Amen.
@Mike in DC: There’s that, and also the NRA attempts to kill every promising attempt to bring smart gun technology to market because the ghouls who run that organization are afraid smart gun innovations would prompt legislators to mandate safety features. So, tens of thousands of people will continue to die annually because otherwise, the gubmint might require retrofitting or replacing The Precious.
Mnemosyne
@Brickley Paiste:
What a shock, the NRA troll hates anything that might possibly prevent first graders from being murdered. If people stop being shot to death in AR-15 massacres, poor ARGB will never have another erection. Why won’t you people think of the needs of the mass murder fetishists?!?!
Citizen Alan
@Brickley Paiste:
So what you’re saying is that you have a micropenis?
Brickley Paiste
@Betty Cracker: “tens of thousands of people will continue to die annually” because of absent safety features?
In reality, there are about 500 deaths from “accidental” discharges each year
Where are you getting this “tens of thousands of deaths annually” from lack of safety figures?
MisterForkbeard
@Brickley Paiste:
Mother legally purchases cigarettes for herself. Son smokes them all, gets addicted. Gets cancer.
Solution: sue the company that made the cigarette for marketing to minors who aren’t allowed to legally buy the smokes.
Only in America.
See, how you’re making an incredibly stupid argument? Because you’re making an incredibly stupid argument.
zhena gogolia
@MisterForkbeard:
Thank you.
WaterGirl
OT, does anyone have a personal weather station? I have been toying with getting once for the past 5 years, since the tree crashed on my house. All the personal weather stations near me (on Weather Underground) never seem to show wind speeds, which is mostly what I am interested in.
Anyway, just wondering if this is a “seemed like a good idea at the time” kind of thing or if it might actually be a reasonably good idea. All thoughts appreciated.
Brickley Paiste
@MisterForkbeard:
Your understanding is that lawsuits against tobacco companies led to significant reduction in smoking-related cancer deaths?
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Hey Betty, your 2020 thread earlier this week got me to thinking. Wondering what you might think of this idea I had earlier today:
Betty Cracker
@Brickley Paiste: I don’t know the exact number of gun deaths associated with guns stolen during home or car burglaries, guns bought by straw purchasers and then distributed to people who shouldn’t have access to guns, guns taken by someone who lives with a gun owner and used to kill themselves, someone else or all of the above, etc., but it’s damn sure more than 500.
Brickley Paiste
@Betty Cracker:
Straw purchasers? How would a safety feature prevent that?
And if “smart gun” features were mandated tomorrow, that wouldn’t have any effect at all on the three or 400 million guns in circulation.
The idea that “smart gun” features would save tens of thousands of deaths annually is just silly. It is an argument that fulfills the primary function of most utopian arguments in favor of gun control: making the person arguing in favor of them feel better.
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: My husband had one at our old house. It was pretty cool. We had it mounted on the roof of an outbuilding. It had a little wind speed gizmo and could measure rainfall, pressure, etc. It was solar powered and WiFi compatible, so we could view data via an app or online. Hurricane Irma killed it. :(
Honestly, I think it was more fun than useful. Have you tried Windy.com or their app? I’m way in the boonies, and I get wind speed data that seems pretty accurate.
As for a weekly positive 2020 candidates thread, I like the idea, but it’s hard to imagine a thread staying very positive around this joint. I’ll give it some thought!
MisterForkbeard
@Brickley Paiste: My understanding is that it was part of a larger solution that got cigarettes away from being marketed to children.
Do you TRY to be this stupid and faithless, or does it come naturally? Because occasionally you actually say things I agree with, but you’re on one fuck of a weird tear here.
EDIT: I should also note that your argument is a complete strawman, so go fuck yourself with one of your many, many apparent penile replacement that you’re upset takes… 10 days before you can get.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Bad hurricane! i have never even heard of windy.com or their app. Off to check that out now.
edit: just went to windy.com – what they are saying about wind there matches my sense of the winds speeds (it’s very windy today and the local weather stations nearby show wind speeds that vary wildly. so maybe wind varies wildly by block or neighborhood?
i’ll check out the app.
Betty Cracker
@Brickley Paiste: I’m no expert, but if every gun sold was biometrically linked to the human being who purchased it, i.e., couldn’t be fired by anyone else without significant and expensive technical modification, the straw gun purchasing market would mostly collapse.
As for the millions of guns already in circulation, retrofit The Preciouses or go to jail/pay an onerous fine if you’re caught with a “dumb gun.” I’d be okay with that.
The idea that we can’t use technology to restrict gun usage to the firearm’s rightful owner, thereby saving tens of thousands of lives, is just silly. It is an argument that fulfills the primary function of most gun-humper arguments against gun control: making the person arguing in favor of the blood-drenched status quo feel better.
Brickley Paiste
@MisterForkbeard:
Part of a larger strategy —-> translation —> I have absolutely no reason to believe suing tobacco companies had any impact at all on public health
But, gosh, what’s with all the anger? Maybe you should pour yourself a drink and enjoy a refreshing and invigorating Virginia Slim.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Wilmer’s brain washed cult isn’t gonna like that. He’s programed his Moonies into being apologists for corporate murderers.
Zinsky
I don’t see a real bright future for a country up to it’s eyeballs in firearms. Are we going to allow travelers on Space X’s civilian spacecraft to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights (cough cough) to bear arms and shoot holes through the skin of the spacecraft? The rest of the world thinks we are insane to allow inbred, toothless meth addicts in Alabama to legally carry a Glock. Of course, they are right.
J R in WV
@Brickley Paiste:
This is just wrong. Pie wasn’t invented in 9500 BC at all, we didn’t even have plates yet at that time!!! You can’t even be correct about the tiniest details!!!
Oh, yeah. Pretty sure you’re wrong about deaths from accidental discharges also.
Brickley Paiste
@Betty Cracker:
Yes, retrofit guns with biometric sensors, prolly no more difficult than retrofitting grandpappy’s Buick with auto-braking and lane departure controls
I mean, c’mon.
There are realistic and feasible steps that one can advocate to reduce gun deaths in this country but your statements here remind me of the sort of fantasy-based policies spouted by Bernie bros.
cwmoss
@Brickley Paiste: Assholes gotta asshole.
Brickley Paiste
@J R in WV:
Hey look, it’s the guy who announces again and again I am in his pie filter while simultaneously clicking through to read what I say. Impressive self-discipline.
And, feel free to be sure about what you want to. E sure about. Much easier than educating yourself about reality.
Oh and since I have your attention (when do I not?) you might want to read up the SPLC, their recent lawsuit settlements, their spending, their canning of Dees, and other things.
I supported them for years but recent developments are, um, no bueno.
Brickley Paiste
@cwmoss:
Well, they’re plaintiffs lawyers so what do you expect?
Betty Cracker
@Brickley Paiste: Retrofit an old gun, or, if that’s impossible, replace it with a new smart gun, doesn’t much matter to me.
An individual gun owner’s attachment to a particular shootin’ arn is less important than the rest of our right to live in peace.
As for “realistic and feasible” steps to curtail gun deaths, the NRA has rejected every goddamned one of them. American gun owners have allowed the industry lobbying group known as the NRA to set the pro-gun agenda for decades. That’s going to bite y’all in the ass, I’m afraid.
cwmoss
@Brickley Paiste: You seem nice.
Zinsky
The District of Columbia v. Heller SCOTUS decision, rendered by Fat Tony Scalia was just one of the smelly turds the vile degenerate left behind that will stink up our democratic republic for decades to come. Along with Bush v. Gore and Citizens United, this sweaty, overrated hack should be burned in effigy on a daily basis for his treachery against common sense and the common good.
Yutsano
DNFTT…
Agreed John. Bleed them dry. And try to get a legal challenge to that stupid immunity law.
Brickley Paiste
@Betty Cracker: That is about as true as your “smart guns” would prevent tens of thousands of deaths every year.
The Eddie Eagle program, safety instruction, firearms training, and hunter education programs offered by the NRA reach hundreds of thousands of people a year.
I’m not a fan of the NRA and I think they’ve been destructive to democracy – esp. in the last national election – but the reality is that they’ve done more to reduce gun deaths than you unicorn fueled fantasies about “smart guns”. If their safety and training programs were spun off to a different organization, it would represent an unalloyed good. Now it’s tainted unfortunately
David Evans
@Zinsky: The 2nd Amendment apparently allows strict regulation of guns on airliners. Why should spacecraft be different?
Aleta
@blackcatsrule: I’m so happy to hear that.
brantl
@PaulWartenberg: Life liberty and the pursuit of happiness doesn’t cover that, when your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness is cut short by a gun?
MisterForkbeard
Is anyone else amazing at the sheer assholishness of BP and his unwillingness to actually engage on any points you raise to his largely idiotic points? No? Okay, moving on. :)
WaterGirl
@MisterForkbeard: He talks a lot about pie, and I don’t even read that. Total waste of breath and space on the blog.
edit: I will never understand what people get out of engaging with trolls. I would rather drill holes in metal.
Betty Cracker
@Brickley Paiste: You’re talking out of your ass, but that’s exactly what your industry lobbyist organization wants you to do. They are against research.
The NRA kills any progress toward smart guns because they’re like a pack of Model T enthusiasts in charge of modern emissions and safety standards. Only with a profit motive that requires death.
That’s a component of the “Eddie Eagle” program you’re eulogizing, you incredible tit. Fact is, you’re on the wrong side of history, and you have no answers.
The NRA isn’t the only thing that’s tainted. Good night, sir. I SAID GOOD NIGHT!
brantl
@Brickley Paiste: As a matter of fact, the fact that they finally got the cancer-stick manufacturers to admit to making the sticks more addictive, it did lower cancer deaths, you sanctimonious asshole.
brantl
@Brickley Paiste: You have to start somewhere. And not starting anywhere, leaves the rest of us, just like you. Gods forfend!
m.j.
Does anyone remember Jarts? You know, javelin darts as a lawn game. They caused a hell of a lot less carnage than firearms and yet as a society we are okay with the fact that they are essentially forbidden.
Of course, It’s hard to look as tough with a lawn dart slung over your shoulder or strapped to your waist, and they’re kind of uncomfortable to stuff under your pillow for, “home protection,” although, you really do look and should feel just as stupid with the gun.