For the period of perhaps one or two days after the nation's newest, largest mass shooting, it looked like even Republican leaders were willing to contemplate banning the sale of "bump stocks," attachments that allow semiautomatic rifles to fire as rapidly as fully automatic versions.
The attempt at showing a spine was short-lived, even by our new post-Sandy Hook standards, but there may yet be trouble ahead for the makers of the shoot-people-faster attachments. "Bump stocks" skirt laws against owning automatic weapons because they're only weapon attachments, after all, not actual guns—but that very distinction means they're not protected by the gun industry's congressionally-approved “get out of lawsuits free” card.
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and Eglet Prince Law Firm have filed a class action lawsuit against the makers and sellers of bump stocks, on behalf of survivors who suffered emotional or psychological harm from the attack. The suit alleges that Slide Fire (among other, as-yet-unnamed defendants) recklessly and indiscriminately marketed and sold these products to the public, despite the predictable outcome of a tragedy like the Vegas shooting, and in deliberate disregard for the spirit of longstanding laws banning fully automatic weapons.
It’s normally difficult to win lawsuits against the gun industry for making or selling products that are used to commit crimes. That’s because, in 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), which gives firearms and ammunition manufacturers and retailers broad immunities from civil liability. In this instance though, the suit isn’t against a gun manufacturer. In fact, Slide Fire’s founder Jeremiah Cottle took pains to assure his product was not classified as a gun or an integral gun part. In 2010, he sent a prototype of his bump stock design to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, asking them to affirm that his device is not subject to the same laws that regulate firearms. The ATF agreed.
And that means that the manufacturers of these murder-people-quicker attachments can be sued for selling a dangerous product to dangerous people, just like any other non-gun business in America.
So have fun with that, assholes.