Kill All the Lawyers.....With Guns

In case you haven't noticed, its now en vogue to support pro-corporate legislation by suggesting that radical measures are needed to fend off greedy trial lawyers and curb frivolous lawsuits. Now, the pro-gun lobby is a House vote away from succeeding in its effort to shield gun manufacturers and dealers from liability lawsuits. The gun nuts are dialing up the rhetoric in the hope that the average citizen will blindly accept the improper characterization of consumer attorneys as shameless and predatory.

Officials of the N.R.A. have been confident but cautious about the bill's prospects in the House. The group called the Senate passage a "great victory and a vitally important first step toward ending the anti-gun lobby's shameless attempts to bankrupt the firearm industry through reckless, predatory lawsuits."

Read the entire NY Times article

It's quite laughable that the N.R.A. throws around the moniker "anti-gun lobby" as if it was some sort of scarlet letter. More importantly, where is the proof supporting the contention that a torrent of frivolous lawsuits are bankrupting the gun business, or any businesses for that matter? These attacks on consumer attorneys are intellectually dishonest and nothing more than a disguised attempt to persuade American consumers to rubber stamp a neo-conservative, pro-corporate agenda.

Do some misguided trial attorneys file ill conceived lawsuits? Sure......but this does not support the Draconian step of enacting legislation banning ALL lawsuits against manufacturers, distributors, and sellers of firearms.

In an era in which political dialogue too often devolves into rigid absolutes, it is time to force our leaders to drop the slippery slope rhetoric and support their arguments with actual facts. How novel.