Idea: Suing gun owners for negligence

7

7 Iron

500+ Posts
I've stated before that I own a lot of guns. Assault rifles, handguns, shotguns, etc.


In order to encourage people to lock their guns up and always stay vigilant about where they are, etc - how about allowing civil suits by the victims of gun violence? If your home, car, office is broken into and it is determined that you did not adequately lock up your weapons, you can be sued in a wrongful death lawsuit if a murder weapon is traced back to you. If your kids gets your gun out and accidentally shoots his best friend and maims him - you can be held civilly responsible.

At the very least it may encourage people who don't lock their guns up.


****I REMOVED THE REFERENCE TO MY PROFESSION TO ELICIT A RESPONSE***
 
Do current laws require guns to be "locked up"? Is it foreseeable that a home will be broken into and guns stolen? What about ammo? What about other house members who the gun isn't registered to taking the guns?
 
I can see people not having their guns locked up so that they would be able to access them quickly in the case of a break in. Obviously the situations vary widely as somebody with young children should lock up their guns, whereas a woman living alone in a bad area might not. I would be against a single woman living alone being sued because her means of self defense was stolen and used against somebody else.
 
if a registered gun is stolen you are already supposed to report it as such, otherwise if it is used in a crime and found the police very well might end up on your doorstep and you are know a suspect. Telling the police at this point your gun was stolen is a little too convenient.
 
People who are responsibile enough to secure their guns are not the biggest % of people killing
and I bet relatives ( like this shooter was) who take a relatives guns and kill are also not the ones doing the huge majority of killing

I bet unregistered guns being used by people are the largest by far % of deaths by guns in USA
 
You didn't lose me by mentioning that you're a plaintiff's lawyer, since I was a plaintiff's lawyer. However, you do lose me when you talk about people getting sued for failure to lock up their guns when their home, care or office is broken into. If someone keeps his gun in his dresser drawer, gets burglarized (and his gun is stolen), and then a week later the burglar murders someone with his gun, I think it's pretty unfair to hold him liable. I'm about as pro-plaintiff as it gets, but this would lead to some pretty unjust results.

I'd be open to allowing negligence actions for failure to secure weapons, but it would be a narrower cause of action. If you leave your guns outside and completely unsecured, then no problem. Sue away. If you leave your guns in a vehicle that is unsecured, I'm OK with suing for that. I could even be talked into allowing a lawsuit for leaving them in a secured vehicle but unconcealed.

However, I'd impose a higher duty if you have small children or mentally incompetent adults in the house. If you've got a 3 year old or a nutcase relative in the house and you leave your guns laying around, you're an idiot and deserve to be sued if one of them gets a hold of the weapon and fires it.
 
As a liability defense attorney, screw you.
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I generally agree with the premise of placing liability with those who could prevent injury, but some of what you recommend is too far.

Take the stolen gun scenario. You are placing liability on crime victims for the actions of criminals. That's messed up (I am taking about legitimate victims, not cases where the gun was "stolen.")
 
Ok, I disagree for many if not all the reasons already posted. Besides, if you have a legitimate case for negligence, could you not file a lawsuit anyway regardless if it is a gun, car, etc.?
 
I don't think my idea is that great, but I like my idea better than all the people saying we should confiscate guns or everyone should voluntarily turn them in.
 
This thread is just a bunch of attorneys talking to eachother
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There should be a hornfans page specifically for Law. Id read that.
 
I like the idea of forcing gun owners to carry liability insurance, like owning a car. Let the insurance industry set the price based on their own calculations of risk. It could be rolled into homeowners/renters insurance. "Is your house in a floodplane? Do you have an home burglar system? Do you have guns in the home? How many?"
 
Change gun owners to gun companies, and you would have something. Like blaming car companies for every accident caused by drivers, the attorneys could invent terms like sudden uninteneded trigger syndrome, or such.
 
I guess I should be liable for a crime committed by a criminal who steals my car from my locked garage because I forgot to lock the car. Sounds like a plaintiff attorney to me
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