United States Military Implicated In Deadly  American Assault Rifle Proliferation

UNITED STATES MILITARY IMPLICATED IN DEADLY 

AMERICAN ASSAULT RIFLE PROLIFERATION 

By Thomas Coffin

In 1994, the 103rd Congress passed the Federal Assault Weapons Ban which was in effect until 2004 when the 109th Congress refused to extend it. Instead, Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, s. 397 (PLCAA) in 2005 granting immunity to both gun manufacturers and gun dealers against lawsuits that might hold them liable for the misuse of weapons they make or sell. 

The following excerpt from a letter written by the Department of Defense was submitted to Congress in 2005 in support of the PLCAA:

This responds to your request for the Department of Defense's view on S. 397 a bill to

''prohibit civil liability actions from being brought or continued against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms ammunition for damages, injunctive or other relief resulting from the misuse of their products by others.'' The Department of Defense strongly supports this legislation.

Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 14 - PROTECTION OF LAWFUL COMMERCE IN ARMS ACT

This endorsement – by our military – of immunizing the arms industry highlights the complicity of our own government in the ongoing mass shootings in our nation, at the tune of at least two per day at present, with no end in sight and no movement by Congress to stop the carnage.

Research by the Violence Policy Center reflects that the weapons typically used in these mass shootings are anti-personnel firearms designed to kill the largest number of people in the shortest possible time. (See the Violence Policy Center website for a listing of the nearly 100 mass shootings involving large capacity ammunition magazines prior to 2023, including the Thurston High School and Umpqua Community College mass shootings in Oregon.) Research also demonstrates that the gun industry has embraced heightened lethality as the foundation of their marketing efforts, and that is resulting in the escalating tolls of death and injuries on this tragic, daily basis.

It is my opinion, supported by the mounting evidence, that there is a compelling case for finding the PLCAA to be unconstitutional. Let me explain:

Putting aside the fact that the Second Amendment has never been amended and the supposed personal right to own military grade firearms is the result of recent and questionable narratives which are the product of NRA and gun industry funding pseudo-scholarship, there can be no question but that the Constitution emphatically protects the right to life itself, which each and every victim of gun violence is deprived of, with no process, much less due process.

A parallel to this ongoing deadly ritual plaguing our society can be found in what is termed the Trail of Tears, where our Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, authorizing ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of tens of thousands Native American people from their ancestral homeland who were forced to march long distances to Indian reserves far West over arduous journeys. Thousands of those being relocated died from exposure, disease, and starvation. To be blunt, our government engaged in genocide. Today, there would be no question but that the Indian Removal Act was blatantly unconstitutional. And there are certainly many Congressional Acts that have been found unconstitutional at some point after their passage.

We should do the same with the PLCAA. Our government is commissioning the arms industry to act in ways that are killing children and other victims, and our government is protecting the industry from any consequence or liability for doing so. The killing of children is specifically a form of genocide, and it continues unabated. It has even the protection of an immunity statute. And most egregiously, the protection of immunity is resulting in an arms race to produce ever more lethal firearms to sell for ever more profits.

This is surely depravity from the bottom of hell itself. It has to be unconstitutional, or our Constitution is as dead as the children we are allowing to be murdered. 

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Thomas Coffin was the keynote speaker at the Blackberry Pie Society’s Political Party in February, 2020 and at Politics and Pie in October, 2022.  He is a retired federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon and a former professor at the UO Law School. Thomas retired in 2016 after 24 years on the bench, prior to which he had a career as a federal prosecutor spanning 21 years. He is married with 7 children.  The Blackberry Pie Society is pleased to include a collection of his essays on our website.  We will post them as they become available.

posted 4.19.2023