NSSF Seeks To Block Maryland's Gun Industry Accountability Act

The National Shooting Sports Foundation is busy, as usual, not just promoting the American firearms industry through promotional work, but also fighting attempts by lawmakers to shut the industry down. The latest battleground is Maryland, where the NSSF is looking to block the Gun Industry Accountability Act.

Gun control laws @ TFB:

• ATF Apparently Seizing "Lethal Eye Muzzle Devices": What You Need to Know
• Federal Court Torpedos Mexican Lawsuit Against Gun Manufacturers
• Franklin Armory Announces Lawsuit Against New Jersey
• New ATF "Engaged In The Business" Rule (Kinda) Blocked By Judge

Maryland lawmakers passed the Gun Industry Accountability Act ( House Bill 947) in 2024. According to the politicos, the purpose of the Act is to prohibit firearm industry members from knowingly creating, maintaining, or contributing to a public nuisance through the sale, manufacture, distribution, importation, marketing, possession, and use of certain firearm-related products. It also authorizes “civil actions” (financial penalties) for violating the act. The idea, according to Maryland’s leadership, is that it will make citizens safer by holding gunmakers accountable.

The NSSF holds a different view. As their PR puts it:

Maryland’s Gun Industry Accountability Act is part of a coordinated effort by antigun state legislatures, their attorneys general and gun control special interest groups to engage in lawfare against the firearm industry as an “end run” around the bipartisan PLCAA which Congress passed in 2005.

The PLCAA is the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which was passed to block frivolous lawsuits against the firearms industry for the criminal misuse of lawfully sold legal firearms by remote third parties. In other words, If a semi-auto pistol is legally sold but eventually ends up on the streets of Chicago with an illegal giggle switch installed and is used on a crime, the original manufacturer of the pistol is not responsible.

Since its passing, the PLCAA has been used to effectively protect gunmakers from lawfare, but in recent years, that hasn’t been enough to prevent the suits from coming. While Chicago’s lawsuit against Glock might be the most famous example, the NSSF points out that Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, along with the city of Baltimore, filed a similar lawsuit against Glock, saying the manufacturer is responsible when lawbreakers get their hands on the manufacturer’s guns and use them illegally.

The pushback

So far, Maryland’s state and city governments have not used the Gun Industry Accountability Act to win any massive lawsuits against gunmakers—and the NSSF wants to keep it that way. The organization is filing a lawsuit to block Maryland from using the Act to sue gunmakers. You can see the lawsuit listed here.

Lawrence G. Keene, Senior VPA and General Counsel for the NSSF, says the PLCAA prohibits the kind of lawsuit that Maryland’s AG brought against Glock, stating, “Attorney General Brown is targeting perfectly legal commerce. Maryland’s law that seeks to impose a gun control agenda through litigation not only runs afoul of the PLCAA, but it also violates the First Amendment by limiting protected commercial free speech, the Commerce Clause and the Second Amendment.”

Them’s fightin’ words. Stay tuned on this one, as the battleground over the PLCAA is going to have a big impact on the future of the firearms industry in the U.S., perhaps ultimately determining whether any gunmaker can afford to stay in business against a potential field of frivolous lawsuits.