Over 20 years ago, a bipartisan Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) to shield the weapons industry from frivolous lawsuits intended to destroy manufacturers and distributors.
The irony is that the crime rate in 2005 was roughly 20-30% higher than in 2024, even with more Americans now legally armed.
That matters not to anti-Second Amendment radicals, who well know that state government prosecutors will raid taxpayer funds as much as they need to crush their opponents.
PLCAA is under an all-out attack and needs enhanced protection
This week, outgoing Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) proposed the Stopping Harmful and Outrageous Torts (SHOT) Act. Eleven states have passed laws to shred PLCAA protections, and what was once an effort to reach across the aisle and protect gun rights is now a partisan charge against them.
Cornyn said in a release that he strongly supports the PLCAA in the struggle to preserve individual freedoms that were once taken for granted.
“This legislation would strengthen the PLCAA to ensure it can continue to defend law-abiding Americans’ Second Amendment rights against anti-gun groups’ evolving tactics, and I urge the Senate to bring it to the floor for a vote as soon as possible,” Cornyn declared in a news release.
2005 bipartisan vote could not be replicated in 2026
In 2005, the Senate passed the proposal 65-31, and the House did likewise, 283-144. This truly bipartisan effort to defend a fundamental right might as well have been signed into law in 1905, since such a vote count in Congress today is nigh impossible.
Cornyn is on his way out, and his support for the so-called Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022 undoubtedly contributed to his crushing primary defeat last month to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R).
If this is a correction to his previous betrayal of the Second Amendment community, it is a welcome though late return to the fold.
Either way, the SHOT Act is vital to securing gun rights for future generations. After all, the right to keep and bear arms is meaningless if firearm manufacturers and sellers are run into the ground.
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