I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 357
To prohibit civil liability actions from being brought or continued against 
manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms or ammuni-
tion for damages resulting from the misuse of their products by others. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 27, 2003
Mr. EVERETT 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 result-
ing 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 ‘‘Firearms Heritage 
Protection Act of 2003’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following:
(1) Citizens have a right, under the Second 
Amendment to the United States Constitution, to 
keep and bear arms. 
(2) Lawsuits have been commenced against 
manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers 
of nondefective firearms, which seek money damages 
and other relief for the harm caused by the misuse 
of firearms by third parties, including criminals. 
(3) The manufacture, importation, possession, 
sale, and use of firearms and ammunition in the 
United States is 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. 
(4) Businesses in the United States that are en-
gaged in interstate and foreign commerce through 
the lawful design, marketing, distribution, manufac-
ture, importation, or sale to the public of firearms 
or ammunition that have been shipped or trans-
ported 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. 
(5) The possibility of imposing liability on an 
entire industry for harm that is the sole responsi-
bility of others is an abuse of the legal system, 
erodes public confidence in our Nation’s laws, 
threatens the diminution of a basic constitutional 
right, invites the disassembly and destabilization of 
other industries and economic sectors lawfully com-
peting in America’s free enterprise system, and con-
stitutes an unreasonable burden on interstate and 
foreign commerce. 
(6) The liability actions commenced or con-
templated by municipalities and cities are based on 
theories without foundation in hundreds of years of 
the common law and American jurisprudence. The 
possible sustaining of these actions by a maverick 
judicial officer would expand civil liability in a man-
ner never contemplated by the Framers of the Con-
stitution. The Congress further finds that 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 Four-
teenth Amendment to the United States Constitu-
tion. 
(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 for the harm 
caused by the criminal or unlawful misuse of firearm 
products or ammunition products by others. 
(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 five of that Amend-
ment. 
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. 
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) MANUFACTURER.—The term ‘‘manufac-
turer’’ means, with respect to a qualified product—
(A) a person who is engaged in a business 
to import, make, produce, create, or assemble a 
qualified product, and who designs or formu-
lates, or has engaged another person to design 
or formulate, a qualified product; 
(B) a seller of a qualified product, but only 
with respect to an aspect of the product that is 
made or affected when the seller makes, pro-
duces, creates, or assembles and designs or for-
mulates an aspect of the product made by an-
other person; and 
(C) any seller of a qualified product who 
represents to a user of a qualified product that 
the seller is a manufacturer of the qualified 
product. 
(2) PERSON.—The term ‘‘person’’ means any 
individual, corporation, company, association, firm, 
partnership, society, joint stock company, or any 
other entity, including any governmental entity. 
(3) QUALIFIED PRODUCT.—The term ‘‘qualified 
product’’ means a firearm (as defined in section 
921(a)(3) of title 18, United States Code) or ammu-
nition (as defined in section 921(a)(17) of such 
title), or a component part of a firearm or ammuni-
tion, that has been shipped or transported in inter-
state or foreign commerce. 
(4) QUALIFIED CIVIL LIABILITY ACTION.—The 
term ‘‘qualified civil liability action’’ means a civil 
action brought by any person against a manufac-
turer or seller of a qualified product, or a trade as-
sociation, for damages resulting from the criminal or 
unlawful misuse of a qualified product by the person 
or a third party, but shall not include—
(A) an action brought against a transferor 
convicted under section 924(h) of title 18, 
United States Code, or a comparable or iden-
tical State felony law, by a party directly 
harmed by the conduct of which the transferee 
is so convicted; or 
(B) an action brought against a seller for 
negligent entrustment or negligence per se. 
(5) SELLER.—The term ‘‘seller’’ means, with 
respect to a qualified product, a person who—
(A) in the course of a business conducted 
for that purpose sells, distributes, rents, leases, 
prepares, blends, packages, labels, or otherwise 
is involved in placing a qualified product in the 
stream of commerce; or
(B) installs, repairs, refurbishes, recondi-
tions, or maintains an aspect of a qualified 
product that is alleged to have resulted in dam-
ages. 
(6) 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. 
(7) TRADE ASSOCIATION.—The term ‘‘trade as-
sociation’’ means any association or business organi-
zation (whether or not incorporated under Federal 
or State law) 2 or more members of which are man-
ufacturers or sellers of a qualified product.
Æ