Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, and, most recently, Atlanta have all filed lawsuits against gun manufacturers, seeking financial payments to cover the costs of police work and medical care necessitated by gun violence. Most of these cases are product-liability lawsuits. The claim is that, by failing to install sufficient safety devices, the manufacturers have irresponsibly marketed unsafe products to the public. Given the recent pro-plaintiff settlements in similar lawsuits brought against tobacco companies, it's at least possible that some of these cities might collect millions of dollars. That the cities have resorted to such measures is not a surprise.
Cities bear the brunt of gun violence.
And this crusade is neither. For one thing, a key tenet of American product-liability law is that manufacturers should be held responsible for their negligence in cases of harm stemming from the proper use of their product. If you buy a toaster, operate it properly, and then wind up in a debilitating accident because the toaster manufacturer negligently built a defective product, you clearly have some right to redress. To be sure, modern product-liability cases have eroded the concept of contributory negligence. But, in their suits against gun manufacturers, the cities would take the erosion to a dangerous new level, further weakening the already battered notion of individual accountability upon which our democratic culture depends.