As the gun control movement advances its agenda in Democratic-run states, activists and legislators in Washington State are moving forward with new civil liability legislation that would allow citizens to more easily sue gun manufacturers. 

The Washington state senate passed a measure this week that would allow citizens to sue gun manufacturers and retailers for damages, citing the industry’s “irresponsible, dangerous, and unlawful business practices.” 

The Firearm Industry Responsibility & Gun Violence Victims’ Access to Justice Act passed the state senate with all Republicans and one Democrat voting against the measure. Governor Inslee has said that if the lower chamber passes the bill, he will sign it. 

The senate sponsor, Jamie Pedersen, told the Sun when the bill was being debated that his goal was to encourage gun manufacturers to establish better business practices. “The purpose of this is to get those manufacturers and retailers interested in following the law and to get them interested by creating a financial incentive,” Mr. Pedersen said during a phone interview. 

Second Amendment advocates claim the bill would do nothing to increase public safety and would create a double standard for the gun manufacturers. The managing director of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Mark Oliva, told the Sun that such efforts are “terribly misguided.”

“These firearms are lawfully made. These firearms are lawfully sold. When a criminal uses a firearm, then it is the criminal who is responsible for the crimine, not the gunmaker,” Mr. Oliva said during a phone interview. “Suing gun manufacturers for wrongful death is like suing Budweiser after someone is killed in a drunk driving accident.”

Mr. Oliva added that if the bill passes, his group is likely to sue Washington state. 

Following the senate’s action, Washington’s attorney general, Bob Ferguson, said in a statement that gun manufacturers and distributors will be punished with a raft of civil lawsuits “if they fail to establish, implement and enforce reasonable controls in the manufacture, sale, distribution and marketing of firearms to keep them out of the hands of dangerous individuals.”

“This policy will ensure that the gun industry is treated like every other industry and faces real consequences for irresponsible conduct,” Mr. Ferguson said. “Today’s important vote is a significant step toward improving public safety in Washington.”

A number of states have adopted or are working to adopt similar measures. New York, New Jersey, and Delaware passed gun liability laws in 2021, and California adopted liability reform last year. At a bill signing ceremony, Governor Newsom said that “nearly every industry is held liable when people are hurt or killed by their products — guns should be no different.”

After a landmark Supreme Court decision last year, a number of blue states’ gun laws were deemed unconstitutional. New York State Pistol & Rifle Association v. Bruen relaxed restrictions on permit applications and gun owners were granted more leeway on where they could carry weapons in public. Gun control groups called the decision “extremist” and quickly went to work on new restrictions at the state level, including advocating for liability reform.

A spokesman for the anti-gun control Washington State Second Amendment Foundation, Dave Workman, said this bill will do nothing more than tie up the state in court battles.“It’s not a bill to move anything forward,” he said during a phone interview. “What it’s gonna wind up doing is get Washington state sued by the firearms industry and Second Amendment organizations.” 

Mr. Workman said that a federal law adopted in 2005, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, supersedes any of these state liability laws, as it shielded the gun industry from lawsuits in most cases. He said the Washington legislature’s proposal runs into direct conflict with the PLCAA.

Some legal experts believe gun liability laws — such as the one that is likely to be adopted in Washington — will end up before the Supreme Court in the next few years due to state laws’ conflicts with the PLCAA and because the conservative supermajority on the court has shown increased interest in revisiting the issue.

A Duke University law professor who specializes in the Second Amendment, Joseph Blocher, told the Washington Post that “the court turned away basically every Second Amendment petition that it received” in the last 10 years. “It could be that we’re going to be looking at multiple gun cases at the Supreme Court,” Mr. Blocher said.