They say that necessity is the mother of invention.
That was indeed the case back in 2020 when New York state Sen. Zellnor Myrie was doing a bit of research on a 2005 federal gun law called the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act” (PLCAA).
According to an account he shared with The Trace, an online newsroom dedicated to gun violence in America, PLCAA granted the gun industry immunity from lawsuits.
While there was an exception written into the law, it didn’t pass judicial muster.
So Myrie wrote a landmark state law, one that explicitly regulated gun sales and marketing, and that “allows victims of gun violence to sue manufacturers whose practices fail to enforce reasonable controls.”
It was sponsored by Myrie and then-Assemblymember Pat Fahy and passed in New York state in 2021. Since then, the law has been adopted by eight other states.
Last week, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the National Shooting Sports Foundation about the law, a victory for gun control advocates.
Myrie, chair of the Senate Codes Committee, joined Capital Tonight to discuss the legal victory, and explain how the law works.