It's finally happened. Taking a cue from the recent plague of tobacco lawsuits, the city of New Orleans has now brought a suit against fifteen gun manufacturers in addition to pawnshops, dealers, and firearms organizations. Of course, there are big differences between this suit and the ones against the cigarette manufacturers. The latter claimed that the corporations knew their products were addictive, and sought to make them more so. That obviously doesn't apply to handguns. Instead, the focus is on how dangerous the weapons are. Apparently "under the Louisiana product liability statute, a manufacturer can be held liable for damage caused by a product that is unreasonably dangerous in design." Unreasonably dangerous? You're not alone if you think that sounds a little strange when spoken about a firearm. They're designed to be dangerous, otherwise they're useless. But then, acting as a partner in this lawsuit is the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence (CPHV), just another branch of Sarah Brady's Handgun Control, Inc.

The real gist of their argument, it seems, is that manufacturers have not incorporated enough "smart gun" systems into modern firearms to keep them from being used by children and "unauthorized" users (i.e. criminals who steal them). Therefore, the manufacturers should be held responsible for all deaths caused by the aforementioned group. Nevermind that these systems have not been proven reliable yet, nor do they exist on the hundreds of millions of guns already owned and used in the United States. I think the plaintiffs will have a hard time showing that all of the deaths they're citing were all committed by firearms that were produced since this so-called "smart gun" technology was created. And of course, the logical follow-up to this lawsuit is to sue the knife manufacturers for making such an inherently dangerous product. Do you know how many thousands of people are killed each year by "unauthorized" knife users?

The whole concept is patently ridiculous, of course. It's simply another symptom of the growing "find someone to blame" syndrome that plagues our country. We can't expect the criminals to stop killing people or hold them responsible for their actions, it seems. Some larger, shadowy organization must be at fault. We can't take responsibility for keep our guns locked up and hidden away, out of the hands of children. The gun makers should. Just you wait. Soon enough there'll be a lawsuit holding the manufacturers responsible for injuries sustained because a "smart gun" failed to fire at some bad guy. Somebody always has to be held responsible, no matter what. Right?