BILL NUMBER: S2181

SPONSOR: BAILEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the general obligations law, in relation to providing
for compensation for injury or death caused by the negligent entrustment
of a firearm

 
PURPOSE:

To extend the negligent entrustment liability of firearm manufacturers
and sellers to the maximum extent allowable under federal law.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 establishes the legislative intent.

Section 2 amends the general obligations law by adding a new section
11-108 creating a statutory right of action for negligent entrustment of
a firearm. Negligent entrustment means "the supplying of a firearm by a
              

seller for use by another person when the seller knows, or reasonably
should know, the person to whom the product is supplied is likely to,
and does, use the product in a manner involving unreasonable risk of
physical injury to the person or others."

Section 3 establishes the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

In 2016, almost 1,000 people were shot in New York City. New York State
law enforcement agencies recovered 52,915 illegally trafficked firearms
between 2010 and 2015, with 7,827 guns recovered in 2015 alone, most of
those collected being handguns. 18,361 of these guns come from the "Iron
Pipeline" states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Ohio. It is time that the corporations
that enable this illegal gun trafficking and violence on our streets be
held to accountable.

Gun manufacturers and sellers are pushing dangerous, military-style
weapons onto our streets by irresponsibly marketing and distributing
weapons designed to kill to civilians with no training. Criminals can
buy assault weapons in states with lax gun control laws and bring them
into New York to harm our citizens, but the victims of the "Iron Pipe-
line" have no recourse in our courts against the companies that make gun
trafficking possible.

The federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, 109 P.L. 92, 119
Stat. 2095, bars almost all civil actions or proceedings against
manufacturers and sellers of firearms, but it provides an exemption for
actions brought for negligent entrustment. Negligent entrustment under
the act "means the supplying of a firearm by a seller for use by another
person when the seller knows, or reasonably should the person to whom
the product is supplied is likely to, and does, use the product in a
manner involving unreasonable risk of physical injury to the person or
others."

In Hamilton v. Beretta U.S.A Corp., 96 N.Y.2d 222 (2001), the New York
Court of Appeals ruled that gun manufacturers did not have a duty to
exercise reasonable care in the marketing and distribution of the hand-
guns they manufacture. Id. at 230-31. The Court held that for a plain-
tiff to succeed on a negligent entrustment claim against a manufacturer
whose guns ended up in the black market, the plaintiff has to show that
the manufacturer sold guns to a distributor the manufacturer knew or had
reason to know was "engaging in substantial sales of guns into the gun-
trafficking market on a consistent basis."  Id. at 237. The Court held
that for a claim of negligent entrustment to succeed, the supplier of a
chattel must have or should have "knowledge concerning the entrustee's
propensity to use the chattel in an improper or dangerous fashion." Id.

The purpose of this act is to overturn the holding in Hamilton v.
Beretta U.S.A. Corp. regarding the tort of negligent entrustment as
applied to firearm manufacturers and sellers and to extend the negligent
entrustment liability of firearm manufacturers and sellers to the maxi-
mum extent allowable under federal law. This policy will allow the
victims of gun violence to get their day in court and be compensated for
the irreparable harm enabled by gun manufacturers and sellers.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

Minimal.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to all claims
arising on or after such effective date and to all claims pending on
such effective date.