How to Destroy the US Auto Industry
It’s simple, really. All you need to do to destroy the auto industry in the United States (or any other industry, for that matter) is to hold them to the same standards of accountability that Joe Biden wants to place on the gun industry.
Screenshot from https://joebiden.com/gunsafety/
Contrary to the claim made above, candidate Biden’s plan to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) would place burdens on the firearms industry which are not applied to any other industry in the country. It does not remove standard product liability protections, such as from manufacturing defects or design flaws. All the PLCAA does is to prevent plaintiffs from suing gun manufacturers for damages resulting from the negligent or criminal use of a non-defective product by a third party. Imagine if a similar standard actually were applied to other industries…such as the auto industry.
In May of 2019, a man deliberately drove his Toyota Corolla into a crowd of pedestrians on a California sidewalk, injuring eight people.
There was no indication that there was any sort of mechanical issue with the car, and the driver was arrested and charged with eight counts of attempted murder and two federal hate crimes. While the Toyota Corolla was not defective in any way, it was used in a deliberate, criminal act of violence. Now imagine that as a result Toyota was sued for damages by all eight of the victims of the attack, and was forced to defend itself. Imagine the costs involved, whether Toyota won the cases or not. Keep in mind that Toyota didn’t sell the car directly to this driver, nor did they intend it to be used in a crime.
What if auto manufacturers could be sued if their product was used as a getaway car in a robbery? Or if their car was used to recklessly flee from police, injuring innocent bystanders or damaging property? What if a child got access to the keys and took a car for the joyride, risking his life and others? Is any of that the manufacturers fault? Even though they must know that the potential exists for all of these acts to be carried out with their legal, non-defective product?
And cars aren’t only used criminally to inflict death, injury, and damage on the world. For example, drunk drivers use cars to kill around 30 people every day in the United States, and that doesn’t even take into account traffic fatalities resulting from other causes, like texting while driving. Shouldn’t car manufacturers be held liable for all of those damages?
Let’s be honest. If car makers were held legally liable for every intentional, wanton, or reckless use of their products, they would likely go out of business. Assuming a manufacturer could even get insurance and manage to remain in business, the astronomical costs of underwriting the legal risk would have to be passed on to consumers, making cars prohibitively expensive for the average person. (And that’s no way to stay in business, either.)
And don’t forget the impact on dealerships, as manufacturers don’t typically sell cars direct to end consumers. They sell them to dealerships, which in turn sell them to the public. What if dealerships could be sued for damages done with a car they sold? Dealerships would close down, that’s what.
Clearly, placing such a legal burden on car manufacturers and dealers would destroy the auto industry as we know it in the United States.
Joe Biden wants to do precisely that to the United States firearms industry. Although he knows that nothing in the PLCAA removes standard product liability protections (such as manufacturing defects or design flaws), his campaign website declares outright that he would work to repeal the PLCAA, which simply protects the gun industry from liability for the acts of third parties carried out with their products. We hold no other industry to such a standard, because no industry could survive it.
This is precisely what Joe Biden wants.
