Angie Craig: “over the last good number of years, law- abiding gun manufacturers in this country producing a legal product to the…”

“over the last good number of years, law- abiding gun manufacturers in this country producing a legal product to the market, law-abiding gun dealers performing within the confines of the Federal firearms licensing process, have spent over $225 million defending themselves from the very arguments the Senator from Michigan would like to have continued. The Senator from South Carolina has well spelled out that there is a duty and there is a responsibility. But if that duty is taken beyond your ability to know it, to understand it, to be able to act against it, then you ought not be responsible. We have gotten ourselves into a very litigious society. So in a way it has cost our society more than almost any other society in the developed world today. Why? Because we would like to shove blame off onto someone else. When society wrongs society, it has to be somebody else's fault besides the one who perpetrated the wrong. So we have attempted to reach back through law, time and time again. As a result-- we have heard it, whether it is the cost of an automobile or whether it is the cost of a firearm today or whether it is the cost of almost any consumer product--it is going to cost you more because somewhere the producers have to mount large amounts of money to pay their legal fees to fend off someone looking for an excuse to blame someone else for the action of someone who should have been responsible for themselves.…”