An increasingly strong trend through the course of 20th Century America has been for social issues to be resolved in the courts. One of the highest-profile social issues toward the end of the 20th Century, continuing on through the beginning of the 21st Century, has revolved around guns.
The gun control debate in the United States is a classic conflict between rights and responsibilities. On one side are those who argue that the more than 30,000 deaths by gun each year in the U.S. is a public safety disaster. Advocacy groups like The Million Mom March and The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence often make the point that other products (like defective cribs) that lead to the deaths of mere dozens per year are quickly recalled. They ask why guns, products that lead to the deaths of thousands, are permitted to remain on the public market.
One recent strategy of of gun control advocates has been to sue gun makers for damages related to the injury and death of individuals at the hands of guns. One version of their case has been that guns are products whose makers know will lead to people's deaths, and that gun makers are therefore negligent in producing them. More moderate cases argue that in cases where gun makers have not included safety features to reduce accidental firings, they are responsible for accidental injuries and deaths that occur.
On the other side are those who argue that the Second Amendment guarantees individual citizens the right to bear arms. Advocates of this "liberty" perspective, including the National Rifle Association and the Gun Owners of America, argue that very strong conditions must be met before this constitutionally-guaranteed right can be abridged. They also point out the many legal uses of guns that do not harm humans, such as hunting and target shooting; individuals who use guns to hurt others, to follow this argument, are mis-using a product - like those who use fertilizer to make bombs. The solution, gun rights advocates maintain, is not to outlaw guns, but rather to harshly punish those who misuse guns using existing criminal law.
Most gun rights advocates have opposed the use of lawsuits against gun manufacturers. They see this strategy as an indirect attempt to regulate gun ownership. As Representative Bob Barr of Georgia puts it, "the possibility of imposing liability on an entire industry for harm that is the sole responsibility of others is an abuse of the legal system, [and] erodes public confidence our Nation's law."
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