Biden Targets Firearms Manufacturer ‘Immunity’ In Gun Control Speech

As in the aftermath of other gun-related tragedies since his inauguration, President Joe Biden once again seized on the opportunity to turn a deadly shooting in Maine into a renewed defense of his anti-gun agenda.

Speaking on Thursday, as the suspect in the mass shooting remained at large, Biden issued a statement calling for, among other things, a rescission of liability protections for firearms manufacturers. 

“I urge Republican lawmakers in Congress to fulfill their duty to protect the American people,” he said. “Work with us to pass a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to enact universal background checks, to require safe storage of guns and end immunity from liability for gun manufacturers.”

Of course, what Biden described as “immunity” is actually a much narrower form of protection that prevents gunmakers from facing lawsuits due to the improper or illegal use of otherwise legal firearms.

That distinction has not stopped the president from making similarly misleading claims in the past. In last year’s State of the Union address, for example, he asserted that “the only industry in America, a billion-dollar industry, that can’t be sued … are gun manufacturers.”

In reality, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which Biden was apparently referencing in his remark, only shields gunmakers from liability “for the harm caused by those who criminally or unlawfully misuse firearm products or ammunition products that function as designed and intended.”

There is nothing in the law providing blanket immunity from lawsuits, particularly when the manufacturer operates in some way that is outside the confines of the law.

Biden repeated the same false interpretation of the law in a subsequent speech and other prominent Democrats — including Hillary Clinton in 2015 — have also attempted to portray the PLCAA as a form of legal immunity. 

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As National Review’s Dan McLaughlin pointed out, Biden’s claim that such protections are somehow unique to the gun industry is provably false. 

Using vaccine manufacturers as an example, he wrote: “Federal law enacted during Biden’s tenure in the Senate provides that ‘no vaccine manufacturer shall be liable in a civil action for damages arising from a vaccine-related injury or death associated with the administration of a vaccine … if the injury or death resulted from side effects that were unavoidable even though the vaccine was properly prepared and was accompanied by proper directions and warnings.”