REsponsibility in Firearms Legislation (RIFL)
Let's end the subsidy to the firearm industry paid by taxpayers.
The firearm industry is the only for-profit industry in the U.S. that carries no liability for the foreseeable, known, and inevitable harm their products cause.
Each person wounded by gunfire faces an average $82,000 in medical bills. Every year, taxpayers pay $12.2 billion dollars for the uncovered and unpaid costs for medical services that trickle down to the states' Medicaid and Medicare. And every year, the cost of firearms injury cost employers $465,000,000.
Let's require firearms manufacturers and distributers to pay into a no-fault fund in each state to be used to pay hospitals, physicians and other medical staff, and reimburse victims, and small business for the subsequents direct costs of gun injury.
About
Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done. --Louis Brandeis
South Bend natives Anthony D. Douglas II and Mary Louise Kocy locked arms over three shared objectives that form the bedrock of the Responsibility in Firearms Legislation (RIFL).
One: To shift the direct costs of gun injury from the wounded and their families, taxpayers, and employers to firearms manufacturers and distributers. These costs include funeral and burial expenses; medical treatment and physical therapy ; mental health counseling; and the increases in Medicare and Medicaid hidden in each year's tax bill. They include lost wages, lost productivity, and increases in employers' health insurance premiums.
Two: To require each state to create a separate victim compensation program for anyone injured by gunfire. This program, run by an independent non-partisan agency, would provide wrap-around services to address the manifold needs of the injured subsequent to a shooting.
Being shot is a trauma that is distinct from every other event because of the complex psychological, legal, and social repercussions experienced by the injured and their families.
Victim compensation funds in every state are inadequate to address the needs of almost anyone injured by gunfire. Because of the complicated application process, exclusions, and waiting periods, many victims do not apply for compensation.
Three: To motivate the firearm industry to engage with elected officials, business leaders, law enforcement officials, and voters for common sense gun legislation to reduce gun violence. Successfully reducing gun violence will decrease the levy that manufacturers' would be required to pay into the compensation program.
Corporations in every other industry are held accountable for the harms caused by the goods and services they produce for profit, whether that enterprise is the construction of a high-rise apartment building, the manufacturing of an automobile or an infant car seat. Bringing the firearms industry on par with these corporations ensures that the same rules apply to all businesses in every industry.