BALTIMORE, MD -(Ammoland.com)- Baltimore City has teamed up with the Brady Organization to sue Polymer80 and Hanover Armory, claiming the companies are causing a public health crisis.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said the company is guilty of negligence, public nuisance, and violations of the Maryland Consumer Protection Act. He claims the company intentionally undermines state and federal firearms laws like the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) and the Maryland handgun registry.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has ruled repeatedly that unfinished frames and receivers are not firearms and not covered under the GCA. The new rule on 80% kits goes into effect towards the end of August. It seems like Baltimore City is arguing based on the new regulation in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit requests compensatory damages for policing costs, punitive damages, and an injunctive relief barring the company from introducing more so-called “ghost guns” into Baltimore. The goal of the suit seems to be to bankrupt Polymer80. If Polymer80 loses the case, it could cost the company millions of dollars.
The stats presented by Baltimore and Brady are misleading. For example, it claims that 19% of firearms recovered from crime scenes are so-called “ghost guns.” Then the two entities claim that 91% of the assemble-it-yourself guns recovered by city police were Polymer80s. Some gun rights activists believe that Brady is not presenting these stats in good faith.
According to some in the gun rights community, how these statistics are presented is right out of Brady’s playbook. First, 19% of firearms in Baltimore did not have serial numbers. This stat includes guns that were altered to have the serial numbers removed. In fact, most so-called “ghost guns” were stolen firearms with the serial number scratched off.
They try conflating the two stats together to try to make the public think that there is an epidemic of homemade firearms used in crimes are flooding the streets. The numbers are presented in a way to demonize the privately manufactured firearms (PMF) community. The vast majority of the gun builders are law-abiding citizens.
Baltimore and Brady also claim Polymer80 is marketing their products to minors, felons, and gun traffickers. The evidence for this claim is flimsy to non-existent. Polymer80 has never run advertisements or produced any marketing material targeting these groups. Baltimore did not present any evidence.
Dr. Joseph Sakran of John Hopkins University also weighed in on the lawsuit. He told WBALTV, “This is one of the most important public health problems of our time.”
Apparently, Dr. Sakran thinks that Polymer80s is a bigger health risk than cancer, COVID-19, AIDS, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. The historic medical university has partnered Center for Gun Violence Prevention to create the gun control advocacy group called the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. The University has taken millions of dollars from Michael Bloomberg.
The coalition is also suing Hanover Armory. Hanover Armory is a local gun store selling Polymer80 kits when it was a legal product in Maryland. When the new Maryland law banned unserialized frames and receivers, the company stopped selling P80s. Gun rights advocates believe Baltimore wants to apply the new law to sue the gun shop retroactively.
Los Angeles also has a pending lawsuit against Polymer80 claiming the same things. Gun rights advocates believe that Brady is teaming up with cities to try to bankrupt Polymer80. This way, Brady can cause damage to companies engaging in lawful commerce to try to put them out of business using public money.
Some in the gun community see these lawsuits as backdoor gun control. With the help of Brady, these cities are trying to discourage companies from producing gun parts by using the “public health crisis” excuse. Some lawyers AmmoLand News spoke to on background think that these cities don’t plan to win these cases. They believe these cases are designed to bleed the company to death until they run out of capital to stay in business.
No date has been set for the hearing.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
Polymer80 & their open statement on the website I wish them the best of luck it’s going to cost a fortune to defend themselves, and that is the point. Democrats continue to delete americans freedoms with each new day while crafting legislation that benefits only their cause not the American taxpayer as a whole. Felons having the ability to build a complete weapon is possible.Criminals never lie steal rob or murder Polymer80 has a fight ahead of them. The Polymer80® AFT™ “Assemble For Thyself™” Kit contains all the necessary components to build a complete P80® handgun. Based on P80’s Next-Gen… Read more »
Lawfare, plain and simple. If P 80 go down being bankrupted by this sort of evil, any other cmpay doing the same thing will shy away from that market. Hopefully one of our pro gunorganisations will take up this fight and win an YUUUUGE prize when the city loses. As they should. As this is an interstate lawsuit, P 80 should countersue in a federal court. If this gets tried in a local court no jury will be unbiased going in. That merchanisde IS legal to sell in that state, so the cities have a hard push to prove any… Read more »
Violent criminals, leftist politicians and bureaucrats are the real public health threats.
This is what the law specifically is against. Th one that Biden keeps claiming you can’t sue gun Manufacturers