Closed Course, Don't Try This At Home?

NPR ran a story a few minutes ago titled "Sandy Hook Families Push To Hold Gun Maker Accountable In Connecticut Court". The question to a state judge will be whether parents of the Newtown school kids shot up and killed by Adam Lanza can sue Remington, which made and marketed the Bushmaster rifle that Lanza used to assault the school, in spite of Remington not having any control over Mr. Lanza acquiring the rifle and in spite of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects gun manufacturers from being sued due to the intentional misuse of an otherwise properly functioning product.

 The story on NPR indicated that the lawyers will go after Remington not because the gun is dangerous.  After all, all guns are dangerous. But instead, the lawsuit will suggest Remington marketed its product in a manner that raised the chances that these rifles would be used inappropriately, i.e., "negligent entrustment" with ads like the one on the left and some shown in this NY Magazine article. Never mind that millions are out there among innocuous collectors and gun nuts and only a very few are used inappropriately, even when marketing guns with stupid ads such as the Man Card ad shown here.

If we held car companies to such standards, would cars be sold at all or would many of the car ads fail the lawsuit test? Not only are cars used inappropriately, but some car advertisements go at least as far as Remington in marketing them as something we should be using to get our aggression or sex appeal sated. See, for example these two below. I got into a shitfest with Bicycling Magazine a few years ago when BikeMag published ads advertising cars as ways to exercise one's aggression on the road. All the while, bicyclists were being subject to road rage. Bicycling told me its ad department and editorial department were on separate pages.Yeah, right.



Or this one.



 I'm not sure guns are sold any more stupidly than cars and if we expect car buyers to be able to separate dumb ads from real life, I wonder whether we are holding Remington and Benz buyers to the same standard since gun buyers should be able to do the same.

Closed course. Don't try this at home as you will be held to real life standards. You think?