Court blocks New Jersey law that allows state to sue gun industry

Brendan Pearson

(Reuters) – A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a New Jersey law allowing the state attorney general to sue gun manufacturers and sellers for endangering public safety, saying it violates a federal law that protects the gun industry from such claims.

A preliminary ruling by US District Judge Zahid Quraishi in Trenton, New Jersey, means the law cannot be enforced while the judge is considering legal action from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), a gun manufacturing group. It came the day after another judge overturned parts of a separate gun control measure in the state.

“NSSF wholeheartedly welcomes this decision,” said Mark Oliva, a spokesman for the group.

A spokesman for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said the governor was disappointed and confident the order would be overturned upon appeal.

The currently blocked law, passed last June following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to expand gun rights, allows the state’s attorney general to file lawsuits accusing gun manufacturers and sellers of creating “public nuisances” that endanger health and safety – for example . . through dangerous marketing or failure to prevent trafficking.

The Quraishi found this to be in “direct conflict” with the federal Lawful Trade in Arms Protection Act of 2005 (PLCAA), which protects gun manufacturers and sellers from lawsuits for crimes committed with guns they sold legally.

The PLCAA has largely thwarted efforts to hold the gun industry legally accountable for gun violence, and Monday’s decision is an early test of some Democratic-led states’ efforts to circumvent its shield. The NSSF is also challenging similar laws in New York, where it lost its original application to block enforcement, and in Delaware.

Gun control has long been politically divisive in the United States, favored by Democrats and opposed by Republicans. Democratic President Joe Biden signed the first bipartisan national gun safety bill in 30 years last June, sparked by mass shootings in Texas and New York that killed more than 30 people, including 19 elementary school children.

(Reporting by Brendan Pearson in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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