Case 1:21-cv-11269-FDS Document 67 Filed 11/22/21 Page 37 of 58
1.
Congress wrote the PLCAA to cover foreign claims.
Congress made clear that firearms companies operating in the United States should be shielded from lawsuits arising from harms caused by firearms shipped overseas. The statute provides: Businesses in the United States that are engaged in interstate and foreign commerce through the lawful design, manufacture, marketing, distribution, 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. 15 U.S.C. § 7901(a)(5) (emphasis added). Thus, Congress expressly contemplated that companies operating in the United States should not be held liable for the misuse of their firearms “shipped or transported in . . . foreign commerce.” Id. (emphasis added). This is exactly the type of “clear, affirmative indication” of congressional intent that dispels any doubt about the law’s applicability. RJR Nabisco, 136 S. Ct. at 2101. Other aspects of the statutory text confirm the same point. The statute notes that U.S. manufacturers must comply with, among other things, the “Arms Export Control Act,” thus contemplating that the law should apply to firearms exported abroad. 15 U.S.C. § 7901(a)(4). The PLCAA also notes that imposing liability on firearms companies could undermine both “interstate and foreign commerce.” Id. § 7901(a)(5). Similarly, the statute’s explicit purposes include avoiding “unreasonable burdens on interstate and foreign commerce.” Id. § 7901(b)(4). And the definitions of covered “manufacturer[s],” “seller[s],” and “qualified product[s]” likewise all contain references to “foreign commerce.” Id. § 7903(2), (4), (6). In addition to all of these explicit references to exports and foreign commerce, the possibility of foreign plaintiffs bringing lawsuits fully implicates Congress’s stated concern about tort suits imposing undue burdens on “[b]usinesses in the United States” engaged in the
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