Georgia joined nine states this week that filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing a Connecticut court decision allowing the parents of victims in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting to sue the gun manufacturer.
Remington Arms Co. is appealing a March decision from the Connecticut Supreme Court that ruled the company can be sued over its marketing practices under a state law, despite protections offered to gun manufacturers by federal law.
Georgia is or will soon be home to a handful of gun manufacturers, including Taurus USA, which is opening in Bainbridge this fall.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr joined the attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia, and the governor of Mississippi in supporting Remington in its appeal. The National Rifle Association and several Republican congressmen also filed briefs supporting Remington.
Katie Byrd, a spokeswoman for Carr’s office, said the states are asking the court to clearly define when state laws can supersede federal laws.
“Our coalition of states is asking the court to clarify the boundaries of federal pre-emption to give states guidance as they work to combat gun violence consistent with constitutional protections,” Byrd said.
Georgia Democrats, who have tried unsuccessfully for years to pass laws that limit access to guns, decried the state's involvement in the case.
"Instead of taking action to enact common sense gun safety laws, our state prefers to file briefs in support of gun manufacturers in an out-of-state case emanating from the shooting of elementary school children in Sandy Hook," state House Democratic Leader Bob Trammell, D-Luthersville, said on Twitter.
In the brief, the states argue that the Connecticut court’s decision undermines the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects gun manufacturers from liability when their weapons are used for violence.
Remington, which made the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle that a gunman used in 2012 to kill 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that federal law shields it from liability. A survivor and relatives of nine victims in the shooting filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Remington in 2015.
“In forcing (Remington) to defend against claims flowing from a deranged killer’s mass murder, the Connecticut Supreme Court has foisted onto the firearms industry a burden that Congress explicitly sought to eliminate,” the states wrote in the brief.
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