Steve Chapman’s June 18 column “Restricting guns by squelching democracy” assails both the MacArthur Justice Center of the University of Chicago and Mayor Richard M. Daley for their attempts to hold gun manufacturers liable for handgun carnage on the streets of Chicago.
Recently, the MacArthur Justice Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of three families who lost children to handgun violence. The suit accuses the manufacturers of certain handguns of negligently marketing their products by emphasizing features prized by criminals–such as firepower, small size, low price, and “fingerprint resistance.” The suit argues that the careless- ness with which those manufacturers market their guns requires them to pay damages to those injured as a result of this negligence.
While the lawsuit may attempt to apply negligence theory to a new legal claim–requiring manufacturers to bear at least part of the enormous social costs to which their profit-making activity contributes– the fact is that using our common-law courts to adapt to the changing needs of society is solidly anchored in our centuries-old legal system. More than a hundred years ago it was the courts–not the legislatures–that developed and refined the legal doctrines that now hold manufacturers of inherently dangerous products.
The very reason for a common-law judicial system is for judges and juries to be able to respond reasonably and with fairness to the infinitely variable factual situations that present disputes or cause injuries and are therefore beyond the ability of a legislature to handle. The vast majority of negligence cases are based on common-law theories of negligence and not on laws passed by a legislature.
Thus Chapman is way off base to argue that it is undemocratic for the MacArthur Justice Center to try to put the issue of handgun violence before a jury, which Chapman calls “a dozen people elected by no one.” The jury system is a fundamental and essential component of our democracy and for 200 years has played a key role in fairly balancing the interests of those who suffer terrible injuries and those who cause them.
If Chapman thinks that our common-law court system should be changed to prohibit the kind of negligence suit brought by the MacArthur Justice Center, there is a place for him to go for relief–he can petition the legislature to pass a law prohibiting such claims. Until the legislature acts, our court system is perfectly capable of sorting out these cases.
