No. CS/HB 1551
Filed under Legal.
Products Liability for Firearms; Provides that firearm manufacturer is not liable for certain torts based on absence or presence of certain features, mechanisms, or standards not required under federal law.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDFlorida law will bar a lawsuit against a firearm manufacturer over a design feature, safety mechanism, or performance standard the gun lacks or includes, as long as federal law does not require it either way.
Four features are named as examples: a magazine disconnect mechanism, a loaded chamber indicator, authorized-user recognition technology, and an external manual safety such as a trigger safety.
The immunity does not cover an actual manufacturing or design defect, or a failure to live up to the manufacturer's own express warranties, so ordinary defect and warranty claims still go forward.
The new protection only reaches cases filed after this act takes effect, so it does not apply to a lawsuit that was already pending or filed beforehand.
AIA firearm manufacturer cannot be held liable, under any products-liability theory, for a design feature, mechanism, or performance standard a gun has or lacks, as long as federal law does not require that feature either way.
AIThe shield applies whether the claim is based on the absence of a feature, since the gun lacks it, or its presence, since the gun has it, as long as federal law doesn't mandate one way or the other.
AIThe immunity does not apply where the claimant proves the firearm had an actual manufacturing or design defect, or that it failed to perform consistent with the manufacturer's own express warranties or representations.
AIThe immunity explicitly names four kinds of optional safety technology as covered examples: a magazine disconnect mechanism, a loaded chamber indicator, authorized user recognition technology, and an external manual safety.
AIThe new immunity does not reach back to cover a lawsuit already filed before this act's effective date; it applies only to a case filed afterward.