Now, in California, you can sue a gun manufacturer if its products caused you harm
It's called taking responsibility.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signs law to hold gun manufacturers accountable.
The logic behind a new California law that allows people to sue gun manufacturers if they’ve been hurt—most likely shot—by their products makes a lot of sense. In America, you can sue a fast food joint if its burger has tainted meat that made you sick. You can also sue your employer if you are injured on the job.
There have even been instances where tobacco companies have been successfully sued for the deaths of smokers.
Why shouldn’t companies that make fortunes from selling and marketing instruments of death have to be responsible for the carnage created by their use? If you’re going to profit from guns you should also have to be responsible for the repercussions, especially when innocent people are hurt or killed.
A new bill signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom will allow people who’ve been harmed by guns to sue the manufacturer if it didn’t establish “reasonable controls” to keep them from those most likely to cause harm. These include people who are legally prohibited from owning a firearm or those who might hurt themselves or others.
Manufacturers can also face penalties if their guns are “abnormally dangerous” or sold in a way where they can be illegally converted.
“It’s well known that nearly every industry is held to account when their products cause harm or injury, except one: the gun industry,” Newsom said in a statement.
“California is going to change that. They can no longer hide from the mass destruction that they have caused. ... If you’ve been hurt or a family member is a victim of gun violence, you can now go to court and hold the makers of these deadly weapons accountable,” he said.
The bill could cause significant damage to the gun industry through expensive lawsuits. The Sandy Hook families successfully sued Remington in 2017 and won $73 million in damages. Insurance companies would also be less likely to protect gun companies from lawsuits knowing they have a much greater chance of being successfully sued.
The National Rifle Association claims the new law is “intentionally vague” and “can subject the industry to crippling lawsuits regardless of whether there is any actual violation of law, and therefore prevent law-abiding citizens from being able to access the firearms necessary to exercise a constitutional right.”
The new law is bound to be the subject of legal battles, but Assemblymember Phil Ting of San Francisco told Politico that similar challenges to a New York law lost their initial challenges in court.
The new law is another bold step against gun violence for the state of California, which already has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. While gun rights advocates may bristle at the state’s actions, research shows that these types of laws save lives. According to The New York Times, California’s firearm mortality rate is the country’s lowest at 8.5 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2020, compared to the national average that year of 13.7 per 100,000.
People who live in California are also 25% less likely to die in a mass shooting. In the debate in America over whether we're safer with more guns or fewer firearms, California is making a compelling case for the latter.
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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
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Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.