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District of Columbia v. Beretta4/21/2005
anied by a proliferation of use of assault weapons (i.e., automatic and semi-automatic guns) in the community," with " emi-automatic handguns represent a growing percentage of the handguns recovered by the [police and] . . . involved in handgun crime"; (b) that " ssault weapons, and the manufacture and distribution of assault weapons are abnormally and unreasonably dangerous, and pose risks to the citizens of and visitors to the District which far outweigh any benefits that assault weapons may bring"; (c) that " t is foreseeable by manufacturers and distributors of assault weapons that the criminal or accidental use of assault weapons will cause injury and death"; and (d) that the manufacture and distribution of these weapons "are among the proximate causes of the rising number of homicides in the District, exposing the citizens and visitors to the District to a high degree of risk of serious harm." Findings (9), (10), (12), (13), & (14), 37 DCR 8483. The legislation, in short, addresses a pressing concern for public safety by giving innocent victims of gun violence in the District a cause of action against manufacturers or dealers for injuries caused by particularly dangerous firearms whose destructiveness far outweighs any legitimate utility they have.
In contrast to this strong governmental interest, any effect the SLA would have on interstate commerce is "incidental . . . [and not] clearly excessive in relation to the . . . local benefits." Pike, 397 U.S. at 142. Only firearms the Council has classified as "abnormally and unreasonably dangerous" - those designed essentially to kill or intimidate, and for no other purpose in private hands - are covered by the Act, and liability attaches only for death or injuries resulting from the discharge of one of these weapons in the District of Columbia - and then only when the link has been established between a specific manufacturer and the gun that caused the injury. Moreover, assault weapons "originally distributed to a law enforcement agency or . . . officer" are excluded from the statute's reach, ยง 7-2551.03 (a), as are firearms used by persons injured while committing crimes or who injured themselves. Section 7-2551.03 (b), (e). Given these limitations, it is not apparent to us why the SLA's effect on interstate commerce is greater than that of other state laws imposing liability in tort on manufacturers of defective or abnormally dangerous products. See, e.g., Tigue v. E.R. Squibb & Sons, Inc., 518 N.Y.S.2d 891, 897 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1987), aff'd, 526 N.Y.S.2d 825 (N.Y. App. 1988), aff'd sub nom. Hymowitz v. Eli Lilly & Co., 539 N.E.2d 1069 (N.Y.) (1989) (holding that relaxation of the traditional product identification requirement in tort law to provide a forum to innocent victims of the drug DES was not a "clearly excessive" burden "in relation to the putative local benefits" and, hence, was not violative of the Commerce Clause). The defendants profess alarm that the SLA, if upheld, will require them to alter their legal business practices on a national and international level. But given the limitations on the reach of the Act we have described, that fear seems fanciful, especially since it stems mainly from concern with the broader remedies the plaintiffs have sought - i.e., injunctive and "abatement" relief - for the alleged negligence and public nuisance, claims we have rejected here. In any event, the fact that exposure to "product liability in tort, whether strict or otherwise," may also affect commercial decisions by actors in other states, such as . . . manufacturers, does not implicate the Commerce Clause. Differences in the conditions and risks of doing business from state to state are in part the inevitable result of any state economic regula
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 District of Columbia Personal Injury Attorneys
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