Compensate Gun Negligence Victims

Section 2 amends the general obligations law by adding a new section 11-108 creating a statutory right of action for negligent entrustment of a firearm. Negligent entrustment means "the supplying of a firearm by a seller for use by another person when the seller knows, or reasonably should know, the person to whom the product is supplied is likely to, and does, use the product in a manner involving unreasonable risk of physical injury to the person or others."

Section 3 establishes the effective date.

Justification

In 2016, almost 1,000 people were shot in New York City. New York State law enforcement agencies recovered 52,915 illegally trafficked firearms between 2010 and 2015, with 7,827 guns recovered in 2015 alone, most of those collected being handguns. 18,361 of these guns come from the "Iron Pipeline" states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Ohio. It is time that the corporations that enable this illegal gun trafficking and violence on our streets be held to accountable.

Gun manufacturers and sellers are pushing dangerous, military-style weapons onto our streets by irresponsibly marketing and distributing weapons designed to kill to civilians with no training. Criminals can buy assault weapons in states with lax gun control laws and bring them into New York to harm our citizens, but the victims of the "Iron Pipe- line" have no recourse in our courts against the companies that make gun trafficking possible.

The federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, 109 P.L. 92, 119 Stat. 2095, bars almost all civil actions or proceedings against manufacturers and sellers of firearms, but it provides an exemption for actions brought for negligent entrustment. Negligent entrustment under the act "means the supplying of a firearm by a seller for use by another person when the seller knows, or reasonably should the person to whom the product is supplied is likely to, and does, use the product in a manner involving unreasonable risk of physical injury to the person or others."

In Hamilton v. Beretta U.S.A Corp., 96 N.Y.2d 222 (2001), the New York Court of Appeals ruled that gun manufacturers did not have a duty to exercise reasonable care in the marketing and distribution of the hand- guns they manufacture. Id. at 230-31. The Court held that for a plain- tiff to succeed on a negligent entrustment claim against a manufacturer whose guns ended up in the black market, the plaintiff has to show that the manufacturer sold guns to a distributor the manufacturer knew or had reason to know was "engaging in substantial sales of guns into the gun- trafficking market on a consistent basis." Id. at 237. The Court held that for a claim of negligent entrustment to succeed, the supplier of a chattel must have or should have "knowledge concerning the entrustee's propensity to use the chattel in an improper or dangerous fashion." Id.

The purpose of this act is to overturn the holding in Hamilton v. Beretta U.S.A. Corp. regarding the tort of negligent entrustment as applied to firearm manufacturers and sellers and to extend the negligent entrustment liability of firearm manufacturers and sellers to the maxi- mum extent allowable under federal law. This policy will allow the victims of gun violence to get their day in court and be compensated for the irreparable harm enabled by gun manufacturers and sellers.

Legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

Minimal.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to all claims arising on or after such effective date and to all claims pending on such effective date.