Lock And [Re-]Loaded: Third Circuit Greenlights Major Challenge To New Jersey Gun Liability Law

Authored by Jonathan Turley via JonathanTurley.org,

Some of us have been closely following challenges to A1765, New Jersey's gun industry liability law. In my view, the law is facially invalid and preempted under federal law, and we may now find out after the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit greenlit a challenge from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) yesterday. The court found that the NSSF has standing to bring the lawsuit, which could reach the United States Supreme Court.

In 2022, New Jersey enacted A1765 to expose "gun industry members" - gun sellers, manufacturers, distributors, importers, and marketers - to lawsuits as a "public nuisance." This is a common effort among blue states to circumvent Second Amendment cases that reinforce the right to bear arms.

These laws are designed to achieve indirectly what the Court denied directly to the states: to effectively suppress the availability of guns. Indeed, the law effectively requires manufacturers to self-regulate after the state was prevented from direct regulations, mandating that these companies "shall establish, implement, and enforce reasonable controls regarding its manufacture, sale, distribution, importing, and marketing of gun-related products." Id. § 2C:58-35(a)(2).

The problem is the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act ("PLCAA") which was passed to "prohibit causes of action against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, a