A new law that starts on June 1 lets the Maryland attorney general and lawyers for counties and Baltimore City sue members of the firearm industry if they sell, make, distribute, import, or market a firearm-related product in a way that is “illegal” or “unreasonable” and they know it hurts the public.
Eight other states have already passed rules like this one. David Pucino, the legal director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, says that New Jersey’s law is the most like Maryland’s new law.
As examples of how Maryland’s law is likely to work, Pucino brought up two cases from New Jersey. One of them is against a company that sells items related to “ghost guns,” which are banned in both New Jersey and Maryland because they don’t have serial numbers.
“There was a business selling ghost guns in Pennsylvania, not New Jersey, and they knew that right away those guns would be brought across the border into New Jersey and used in crime there,” Pucino said.
That shop, on the other hand, didn’t lock up its guns at night; instead, it left them out in the window. Then someone broke into the store and stole the guns.
In New Jersey, those guns are still being seen on the streets because of crime, Pucino said.
Thanks to a federal law called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, or PLCAA, most lawsuits against the gun business are safe. Supporters like Pucino say that PLCAA doesn’t stop states from making laws with rules that gun sellers and makers must follow and suing them when they don’t.
