I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 800
To prohibit civil liability actions from being brought or continued against 
manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms or ammuni-
tion for damages or injunctive or other relief resulting from the misuse 
of their products by others. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 15, 2005
Mr. STEARNS (for himself, Mr. BOUCHER, Mr. SMITH of Texas, Ms. HART, 
Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland, Mr. BASS, Mr. ROGERS of Michigan, Mr. 
BLUNT, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. PEARCE, Mr. REYNOLDS, 
Mrs. CUBIN, Mr. BRADY of Texas, Mr. BOEHLERT, Mr. NUSSLE, Mr. 
TERRY, Ms. PRYCE of Ohio, Mr. BAKER, Mr. BRADLEY of New Hamp-
shire, Mr. SIMPSON, Mr. BOEHNER, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. MCHUGH, 
Mr. SOUDER, Mr. WICKER, Mr. CANNON, Mr. BOYD, Mrs. MUSGRAVE, 
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey, Mr. MANZULLO, Mr. GINGREY, Mr. DAVIS 
of Kentucky, Mr. MARSHALL, Mr. BONILLA, Mr. CANTOR, Mr. BACA, Mr. 
TANNER, Mr. LEWIS of Kentucky, Mr. SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. MICHAUD, 
Mr. LARSEN of Washington, Mr. HOLDEN, Mr. BERRY, Mr. TAYLOR of 
North Carolina, Mr. MCCRERY, Mrs. JO ANN DAVIS of Virginia, Mr. 
GARY
G. MILLER
of California, Mrs. MILLER
of Michigan, Mr. 
SWEENEY, Mr. PENCE, Mr. DAVIS of Tennessee, Mr. AKIN, Mr. 
CHOCOLA, Mr. THOMAS, Mr. PETERSON of Minnesota, Mr. GILLMOR, Mr. 
SULLIVAN, Mr. STRICKLAND, Mr. FOLEY, Mr. NUNES, Mr. ROGERS of 
Kentucky, Mr. CULBERSON, Mr. OTTER, Mr. WALDEN of Oregon, Mr. 
REHBERG, Mr. GOHMERT, Ms. HERSETH, Mr. GIBBONS, Mr. BURGESS, 
Mr. WESTMORELAND, Mr. CARTER, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. ENGLISH of 
Pennsylvania, Mr. RENZI, Mr. BONNER, Mr. KANJORSKI, Mr. SHUSTER, 
Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas, Mr. PICKERING, Mr. GOODE, Mr. ROGERS 
of Alabama, Mr. GORDON, Mrs. CAPITO, Mr. EVERETT, Mr. YOUNG of 
Alaska, Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi, Mr. HENSARLING, Mr. MORAN of 
Kansas, Mr. BARRETT of South Carolina, Mr. RYUN of Kansas, Mr. 
MARCHANT, Mr. MACK, Mr. ADERHOLT, Mr. HEFLEY, Mr. COOPER, Mr. 
CALVERT, Mr. HAYWORTH, Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, Mr. ISSA, Mr. DIN-
GELL, Mr. TANCREDO, Mr. RAHALL, Mr. SIMMONS, Mr. MILLER of Flor-
ida, Mr. THORNBERRY, Mr. POMBO, Mr. KELLER, Mr. HERGER, Mr. 
DOOLITTLE, Mr. SCHWARZ of Michigan, and Mr. NORWOOD) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL 
To prohibit civil liability actions from being brought or con-
tinued against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or 
importers of firearms or ammunition for damages or 
injunctive or other relief resulting from the misuse of 
their products by others.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protection of Lawful 
Commerce in Arms Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Second Amendment to the United 
States Constitution provides that the right of the 
people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 
(2) The Second Amendment to the United 
States Constitution protects the rights of individ-
uals, including those who are not members of a mili-
tia or engaged in military service or training, to 
keep and bear arms. 
(3) Lawsuits have been commenced against 
manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers 
of firearms that operate as designed and intended, 
which seek money damages and other relief for the
harm caused by the misuse of firearms by third par-
ties, including criminals. 
(4) The manufacture, importation, possession, 
sale, and use of firearms and ammunition in the 
United States are heavily regulated by Federal, 
State, and local laws. Such Federal laws include the 
Gun Control Act of 1968, the National Firearms 
Act, and the Arms Export Control Act. 
(5) Businesses in the United States that are en-
gaged in interstate and foreign commerce through 
the lawful design, manufacture, marketing, distribu-
tion, importation, or sale to the public of firearms or 
ammunition products that have been shipped or 
transported in interstate or foreign commerce are 
not, and should not, be liable for the harm caused 
by those who criminally or unlawfully misuse firearm 
products or ammunition products that function as 
designed and intended. 
(6) The possibility of imposing liability on an 
entire industry for harm that is solely caused by oth-
ers is an abuse of the legal system, erodes public 
confidence in our Nation’s laws, threatens the dimi-
nution of a basic constitutional right and civil lib-
erty, invites the disassembly and destabilization of 
other industries and economic sectors lawfully com-
peting in the free enterprise system of the United 
States, and constitutes an unreasonable burden on 
interstate and foreign commerce of the United 
States. 
(7) The liability actions commenced or con-
templated by the Federal Government, States, mu-
nicipalities, and private interest groups and others 
are based on theories without foundation in hun-
dreds of years of the common law and jurisprudence 
of the United States and do not represent a bona 
fide expansion of the common law. The possible sus-
taining of these actions by a maverick judicial officer 
or petit jury would expand civil liability in a manner 
never contemplated by the framers of the Constitu-
tion, by the Congress, or by the legislatures of the 
several States. Such an expansion of liability would 
constitute a deprivation of the rights, privileges, and 
immunities guaranteed to a citizen of the United 
States under the Fourteenth Amendment to the 
United States Constitution. 
(8) The liability actions commenced or con-
templated by the Federal Government, States, mu-
nicipalities, private interest groups, and others at-
tempt to use the judicial branch to circumvent the 
legislative branch of the Government by regulating
interstate and foreign commerce through judgments 
and judicial decrees, thereby threatening the separa-
tion of powers doctrine and weakening and under-
mining important principles of federalism, State sov-
ereignty, and comity among the several States. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are as fol-
lows: 
(1) To prohibit causes of action against manu-
facturers, distributors, dealers, and importers of 
firearms or ammunition products, and their trade 
associations, for the harm solely caused by the crimi-
nal or unlawful misuse of firearm products or am-
munition products by others when the product func-
tioned as designed and intended. 
(2) To preserve a citizen’s access to a supply of 
firearms and ammunition for all lawful purposes, in-
cluding hunting, self-defense, collecting, and com-
petitive or recreational shooting. 
(3) To guarantee a citizen’s rights, privileges, 
and immunities, as applied to the States, under the 
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Con-
stitution, pursuant to section 5 of that Amendment. 
(4) To prevent the use of such lawsuits to im-
pose unreasonable burdens on interstate and foreign 
commerce.
(5) To protect the right, under the First 
Amendment to the Constitution, of manufacturers, 
distributors, dealers, and importers of firearms or 
ammunition products, and trade associations, to 
speak freely, to assemble peaceably, and to petition 
the Government for a redress of their grievances. 
(6) To preserve and protect the separation of 
powers doctrine and important principles of fed-
eralism, State sovereignty, and comity among the 
several States. 
(7) To exercise the power of Congress under ar-
ticle IV, section 1 of the United States Constitution 
to carry out the full faith and credit clause. 
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON BRINGING OF QUALIFIED CIVIL 
LIABILITY ACTIONS IN FEDERAL OR STATE 
COURT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—A qualified civil liability action 
may not be brought in any Federal or State court. 
(b) DISMISSAL OF PENDING ACTIONS.—A qualified 
civil liability action that is pending on the date of the en-
actment of this Act shall be dismissed immediately by the 
court in which the action was brought or is currently pend-
ing. 
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act:
(1) ENGAGED
IN
THE
BUSINESS.—The term 
‘‘engaged in the business’’ has the meaning given 
that term in section 921(a)(21) of title 18, United 
States Code, and, as applied to a seller of ammuni-
tion, means a person who devotes time, attention, 
and labor to the sale of ammunition as a regular 
course of trade or business with the principal objec-
tive of livelihood and profit through the sale or dis-
tribution of ammunition. 
(2) MANUFACTURER.—The term ‘‘manufac-
turer’’ means, with respect to a qualified product, a 
person who is engaged in the business of manufac-
turing the product in interstate or foreign commerce 
and who is licensed to engage in business as such a 
manufacturer under chapter 44 of title 18, United 
States Code. 
(3) PERSON.—The term ‘‘person’’ means any 
individual, corporation, company, association, firm, 
partnership, society, joint stock company, or any 
other entity, including any governmental entity. 
(4) QUALIFIED PRODUCT.—The term ‘‘qualified 
product’’ means a firearm (as defined in subpara-
graph (A) or (B) of section 921(a)(3) of title 18, 
United States Code), including any antique firearm 
(as defined in section 921(a)(16) of such title), or
ammunition (as defined in section 921(a)(17)(A) of 
such title), or a component part of a firearm or am-
munition, that has been shipped or transported in 
interstate or foreign commerce. 
(5) QUALIFIED CIVIL LIABILITY ACTION.—
(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘‘qualified 
civil liability action’’ means a civil action or pro-
ceeding 
or 
an 
administrative 
proceeding 
brought by any person against a manufacturer 
or seller of a qualified product, or a trade asso-
ciation, for damages, punitive damages, injunc-
tive or declaratory relief, abatement, restitution, 
fines, or penalties, or other relief, resulting 
from the criminal or unlawful misuse of a quali-
fied product by the person or a third party, but 
shall not include—
(i) an action brought against a trans-
fer or convicted of an offense under section 
924(h) of title 18, United States Code, or 
a comparable or identical State felony law, 
by a party directly harmed by the conduct 
of which the transferee is so convicted; 
(ii) an action brought against a seller 
for negligent entrustment or negligence per 
se;
(iii) an action in which a manufac-
turer or seller of a qualified product know-
ingly violated a State or Federal statute 
applicable to the sale or marketing of the 
product, if the violation was a proximate 
cause of the harm for which relief is 
sought, including—
(I) any case in which the manu-
facturer or seller knowingly made any 
false entry in, or failed to make ap-
propriate entry in, any record re-
quired to be kept under Federal or 
State law with respect to the qualified 
product, or aided, abetted, or con-
spired with any person in making any 
false or fictitious oral or written state-
ment with respect to any fact material 
to the lawfulness of the sale or other 
disposition of the qualified product; or 
(II) any case in which the manu-
facturer or seller aided, abetted, or 
conspired with any other person to 
sell or otherwise dispose of the quali-
fied product, knowing, or having rea-
sonable cause to believe, that the ac-
tual buyer of the qualified product 
was prohibited from possessing or re-
ceiving a firearm or ammunition 
under subsection (g) or (n) of section 
922 of title 18, United States Code; 
(iv) an action for breach of contract 
or warranty in connection with the pur-
chase of the product; or 
(v) an action for death, physical inju-
ries, or property damage resulting directly 
from a defect in design or manufacture of 
the product, when used as intended or in 
a reasonably foreseeable manner, except 
that if the discharge of the product was 
caused by a volitional act that constituted 
a criminal offense, then such act shall be 
considered the sole proximate cause of any 
resulting death, personal injury, or prop-
erty damage. 
(B) NEGLIGENT ENTRUSTMENT.—As used 
in subparagraph (A)(ii), the term ‘‘negligent en-
trustment’’ means the supplying of a qualified 
product by a seller for use by another person 
when the seller knows, or reasonably should 
know, the person to whom the product is sup-
plied is likely to, and does, use the product in 
a manner involving unreasonable risk of phys-
ical injury to the person or others. 
(C) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—The excep-
tions set forth in clauses (i) through (v) of sub-
paragraph (A) shall be construed so as not to 
be in conflict, and no provision of this Act shall 
be construed to create a public or private cause 
of action or remedy. 
(6) SELLER.—The term ‘‘seller’’ means, with 
respect to a qualified product—
(A) an importer (as defined in section 
921(a)(9) of title 18, United States Code) who 
is engaged in the business as such an importer 
in interstate or foreign commerce and who is li-
censed to engage in business as such an im-
porter under chapter 44 of title 18, United 
States Code; 
(B) a dealer (as defined in section 
921(a)(11) of title 18, United States Code) who 
is engaged in the business as such a dealer in 
interstate or foreign commerce and who is li-
censed to engage in business as such a dealer 
under chapter 44 of title 18, United States 
Code; or
(C) a person engaged in the business of 
selling ammunition (as defined in section 
921(a)(17)(A) of title 18, United States Code) 
in interstate or foreign commerce at the whole-
sale or retail level. 
(7) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ includes each of 
the several States of the United States, the District 
of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the 
Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the 
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, 
and any other territory or possession of the United 
States, and any political subdivision of any such 
place. 
(8) TRADE ASSOCIATION.—The term ‘‘trade as-
sociation’’ means any corporation, unincorporated 
association, federation, business league, or profes-
sional or business organization—
(A) that is not organized or operated for 
profit, and no part of the net earnings of which 
inures to the benefit of any private shareholder 
or individual; 
(B) that is an organization described in 
section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code 
of 1986 and exempt from tax under section 
501(a) of such Code; and
(C) 2 or more members of which are man-
ufacturers or sellers of a qualified product. 
(9) UNLAWFUL MISUSE.—The term ‘‘unlawful 
misuse’’ means conduct that violates a statute, ordi-
nance, or regulation as it relates to the use of a 
qualified product.
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