Frivolous lawsuit fears drove gun industry liability immunity

Evidence

In a statement following the vote, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who had pulled the original bill from the Senate floor the previous year, defended the gun industry as being unjustly targeted: “America’s crime problems will be solved not by unjustly targeting the gun industry for the criminal actions of others” (Murray, 2005b). Supporters for blanket immunity justified it on the grounds that frivolous lawsuits would bankrupt the domestic gun industry, leaving the nation dependent on foreign gun makers for weaponry. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1114

Categorization

• SEED: The ‘foreign gun makers’ rationale is a striking rhetorical inversion — protectionism invoked to shield an industry from its own product’s misuse. Angle: how national-security rhetoric launders special-interest exemptions.
• XREF: connects to: A product’s defective design creates liability even when built to specifications. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3451