Smith & Wesson and Snope cases were both addressed by the US Supreme Court this last week. One was a win and one was not granted certiorari.

SMITH & WESSON

Smith & Wesson won in a 9-0 decision by SCOTUS in its defense of a lawfare case brought by the Mexican Government. It was a rare unanimous decision, stating that Mexico can not successfully sue Smith & Wesson and six other gun companies for the misuse of their products by drug cartels in Mexico. S&W successfully argued that the United States Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) bars lawsuits against gun manufacturers for the criminal misuse of their products.

This is a major slap down to the First Circuit Court of Appeals which has never met a gun control law it didn’t like. Of course, Bloomberg funded Everytown Law in their support of the Mexican Government case, just like they do for other government agencies across the country.

Writing for the Majority, Justice Kagan makes the points about the lack of plausibility of the aiding and abetting issue: 

“Because Mexico’s complaint does not plausibly allege that the defendant gun manufacturers aided and abetted gun dealers’ unlawful sales of firearms to Mexican traffickers, PLCAA bars the lawsuit…”

Justice Kagan further made the point about the intent of Congress when it passed the PLCCA:

“This conclusion aligns with PLCAA’s core purpose. Congress enacted PLCAA to halt lawsuits attempting to make gun manufacturers pay for harms resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse of firearms. Mexico’s suit closely resembles those lawsuits. And while the predicate exception allows some such suits to proceed, accepting Mexico’s theory would swallow most of the rule. The Court doubts Congress intended to draft such a capacious way out of PLCAA, and in fact it did not.”

SNOPE & OCEAN STATE TACTICAL

These are essentially similar cases; Snope is an outright ban on AR-15 rifles, and Ocean State Tactical  is a ban against standard-capacity magazines. SCOTUS knows it needs to address these two cases, but for some reason, they are choosing not to do so at this time. 

Despite voting against it at this time, in his dissent to the denial of cert, Justice Kavanaugh wrote something very similar to what he wrote two years before the Bruen case was taken up by SCOTUS.

“In short, under this Court’s precedents, the Fourth Circuit’s decision is questionable. Although the Court today denies certiorari, a denial of certiorari does not mean that the Court agrees with a lower-court decision or that the issue is not worthy of review. The AR–15 issue was recently decided by the First Circuit and is currently being considered by several other Courts of Appeals.”…

 

“…Opinions from other Courts of Appeals should assist this Court’s ultimate decision-making on the AR–15 issue. Additional petitions for certiorari will likely be before this Court shortly and, in my view, this Court should and presumably will address the AR–15 issue soon, in the next Term or two.”

My best guess is that SCOTUS is looking for a Circuit split, one that most likely will come out of the Third District Court of Appeals. Currently, there is a tie of six each conservative vs liberal judges. POTUS Trump is expected to fill two vacancies on that court shortly. Hopefully, they will be good Pro 2A judges.

IFC TRUSTED PARTNER OF THE WEEK: CROSSROADS SHOOTING SPORTS

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Please stay Ready at All Times, and help us defend all of Iowa’s rights by renewing or joining IFC today.

Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.

Dave Funk
Member, Board of Directors
Iowa Firearms Coalition
#2A4IA