I accidentally bumped into the Congressional Record of February 1, 2000. 106th Congress, 2nd Session. If you believed the Media Narrative back then, Gun Control was assured and the NRA was all but defeated. It was the time when cities were suing gun manufactures for “gun violence” just to demonetize them into oblivion. And when companies like Lorcin, Davies and Sundance used the only legal way it was available to somewhat defend themselves (Chapter 11), the Gun Control Attack Dogs in Congress tried to carve them out from bankruptcy protection by trying to introduce the Levin Amendment to the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1999 with the full and loud support of the Gun Control Organizations. I screen-captured some interesting parts of the congressional record:

This next one is an excerpt letter from the Violence Policy Center:

Notice the language:

“These lawsuits allege that firearm manufacturers have produced and sold defectively designed firearms,”
Mind you, the guns were cheap, but they were not blowing up in the owners hands, nor going out on their own to shoot innocent people.  It was (and still is) a rubbish accusation.

“and engaged in negligent marketing and distribution practices resulting in countless deaths and injuries in America’s cities.”
Were the gun companies selling guns to gang bangers in violation of Federal Law? Nope, never happened.

“Many other consumer lawsuits are pending against gun manufacturers.”
And here is the whole point: It does not matter that the accusations were bullcrap, once the lawsuit was introduced in a local or state court, the company had to answer it and that meant spending money and more money o lawyers till they had none and had to close shop forever. And that, kiddies is what the Gun Control Movement wanted back then. Death by a Thousand Lawsuits. Senator “Chuck” Grassley left that comment in the congressional record.

I question that the amendment might be about making sure that tort
plaintiffs receive compensation if any of the questionable antigun
lawsuits were to succeed because that is not what is going to happen.
This amendment is merely an effort to drive all segments of American
industry involved with guns out of business, even if thousands of
innocent, hard-working American employees have to pay the price.
Consequently, I urge my colleagues to vote against this amendment.
 

The whole bill never reached the floor, but the Levin Amendment was not forgotten by the Gun Rights community. Gun Manufacturers had decided to create a unified front to face these lawsuits and some 10 months later, Gun Owners flipped the elections from the almost guaranteed Al Gore to G.W. Bush and the pendulum went the other way. The NRA suddenly became a stronger lobby group than the AARP and Bill Clinton later admitted that ignoring Gun Owners was a mistake that cost them both Congress earlier and then the White House.

The Levin Amendment and the scores of lawsuits across the nation against gun manufacturers are the reasons why we ended up with the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. When the Opposition now bitches about gun manufacturers being specially shielded against (frivolous) lawsuits, remind them that it was their side who is responsible for that law.

PS: If you have some free time and feel like wading to a lot of anti gun B.S. take the time to detail the speeches by the Usual Suspects of the Anti Gun Movement. The transcript is quite long, but using the search function in your browser (CTRL F), type LEVIN and that should take you directly to the “festivities.” One thing you’ll notice is that the failed script has not changed a lot in almost 2 decades. And I have no issues with them making the same mistake over and over.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has the
responsibility of regulating virtually every product for household or
recreational use. In fact, the toy guns sold for Christmas and birthday
gifts are subject to regulation by the Consumer Product Safety
Commission. But the real guns, the Saturday night specials and the
firearms that could be the subject of these lawsuits, are not subject
to any Federal safety regulations at all.
Senator Dick Durbin.

See what I mean?

UPDATE: Just saw this post over Moms Demand, the Narrative never stops. I will give them props for recycling as the pic is from 3 years ago.