Thoughts and prayers are not a sufficient response to the gun violence in this country. It is hard to imagine that the Second Amendment was intended to afford citizens the right to possess assault rifles or other weapons capable of inflicting the mass killings that we experience nearly every day. Yet there is a way to address the mayhem caused by these weapons, even if this improbable constitutional interpretation is correct.
Manufacturers and owners of assault weapons should be held strictly liable for any damage that these guns cause. Strict liability is imposed when a company or a person creates an abnormally dangerous condition or performs an ultra-hazardous activity. Liability is imposed even if the party responsible was not at fault or negligent.
A person who keeps a tiger in their backyard is strictly liable for the harm that results from the tiger’s escape, no matter how high a fence its owner might build. Manufacturers of highly explosive materials or defective products are responsible for the damage these materials or products cause, no matter how diligent the manufacturer was in attempting to prevent that damage. Statutory rape is a crime without regard to the perpetrator’s “fault.”
If a company manufactures assault weapons, it should be responsible for the damage those weapons cause. If a person owns an assault weapon, that person should be responsible for any damage caused by that weapon by that person or anyone else using that weapon. This should be true no matter how careful the manufacturer or the owner has been to prevent such damage.
Assault weapons are inherently dangerous. They are more dangerous than tigers. If there is an absolute right to manufacture or possess these weapons, there should be a corresponding and absolute responsibility to compensate for the damage that they cause.
Strict liability would not be a complete solution to keeping guns out of the hands of people evil or crazy enough to use them unlawfully. However, it would do more than thoughts and prayers to address the damage that these weapons cause. Most importantly, it would limit the proliferation of these dangerous weapons.
— Larry Cohn
Anchorage
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