Don’t Tread on Me--or I’ll Sue

My optometrist gave me the wrong prescription for my new glasses, so I’m going to sue Bazzato. That’s the maker of the eyeglass frames. It’s their fault, right? In fact, while I’m at it, I should file a lawsuit against Ford over that scratch in my car’s paint that appeared last time I went to the car wash. They’re definitely liable. Oh, and that money I lost in Las Vegas last summer? The casino’s fault.

Let me ask you this: Does it sound any less irresponsible to sue a gun maker because two crazed teenagers went on a shooting rampage? Or to blame a tobacco company for the death of a loved one who made the choice to inhale smoke into his lungs for 40 years? Every time I hear of such lawsuits, I shake my head in disbelief. Yet in many courtrooms in America, millions are being spent arguing cases that would be thrown out in a New York minute if common sense were the law of the land.

In November of last year, the family of a teenager killed by another boy with a Beretta sued the gun manufacturer for “negligence.” Without knowing the facts of the case, I would agree that negligence caused the kid’s death. However, I would say it was the boy who did the killing, and responsibility might well be shared by his parents, who weren’t around. Fortunately, the jury in that case had some common sense and dismissed the suit.

Dennis Hennigan of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence can’t be accused of having common sense, however. Hennigan recently called gun manufacturers “a very secretive industry that markets a very lethal product.” Well, isn’t that the point? If I were purchasing a handgun for home protection, I wouldn’t want the “nonlethal” model.

The Colt Manufacturing Co.’s post-Civil War slogan was once “Abe Lincoln may have freed all men, but Sam Colt made them equal.” If you favor these new lawsuits, however, then you’ll agree that men who used Colt firearms to commit violence were not free; Colt made them do it, and should therefore be punished.

Such misplaced blame seems outrageous, but in the wake of successful tobacco lawsuits, it’s not hard to see how such litigation can find support. Somewhere along the way, courts--and by extension, the Americans who served on the juries--have forgotten about accountability and personal responsibility. These days, murderers no longer act alone; they share the blame with the parents who abused them, the drug dealer who doped them up and the gun manufacturer who provided the trigger. But why stop there? Blame Hanes for making the killer’s underwear too tight, Right Guard for failing to control his body odor and McDonald’s for selling him the Big Mac that gave him indigestion.

I used to smoke cigarettes. I did not need a government study or a press release from the tobacco company to tell me that drawing smoke into my lungs hundreds of times a day was hazardous to my health and every time I got a “nicotine fit,” it meant I was addicted and needed my “fix.” If I come down with lung cancer, I’ll kick myself, I’ll curse my own stupidity, I’ll wish I had never smoked that first cigarette. And I’ll be blaming the right person. It was my own free will that made me smoke.

Similarly, if a loved one were gunned down tomorrow by a crazed lunatic, I would blame the criminal, I would push strenuously for his death sentence, I might even be tempted to take the law into my own hands. But how on Earth could I make the mental leap to blame the manufacturer of the legal weapon that the criminal used illegally? I’m sure that gun makers have also built countless guns that have saved lives, but you rarely hear about those cases.

As a nation, we are quickly abandoning responsibility for our actions. Unlike the vulnerable child who grows up and learns to fend for him or herself, Americans are learning not to fend for themselves. The legal precedent being set by this spate of lawsuits is that no one is accountable for his or her actions; it’s Big Government and corporate America’s job to protect everyone from everything.

Our national motto used to be “Don’t tread on me.” It should be updated for the 21st century to read “Don’t tread on me or I’ll sue the maker of your shoes.”