Despite all the gun control laws on the books in New York, a maniac still took an AR-15 into a grocery store in Buffalo, NY, and killed innocent people. It was a prime example of the failure of gun control.

However, as Cam noted earlier today, the city is filing a lawsuit against a number of gun companies.

In fact, some are skeptical about the motivations behind the lawsuit, though.

Following the announcement, strong opinions are floating online, most of them condemning the legal action. “Sc**w the City of Buffalo for suing law abiding gun manufacturers. The incompetent law enforcement in the C.O.B. are the real criminals here. Stop wasting taxpayer money on doomed lawsuits,” a Twitter user wrote.

“Its not the gun manufacturers fault, its the criminals fault. Do something about the criminals, i.e. put them in prison where they belong,” another tweet read.

“Sounds like another tax grab,” a third tweeted.

I want to warn people about that last comment.

Do not, for one moment, think of this as a tax grab. A tax grab would imply this was about the money. Bad as that is, I could at least understand the motivation to some degree.

No, this isn’t about revenue for the city of Buffalo. This is about the gun industry.

You see, the reason you can’t sue gun makers for the misuse of their products is because of previous lawsuits that did so. They weren’t because the gun companies did anything wrong, mind you, it was just about punishing them and trying to drive them into bankruptcy.

Following the rulings against Remington after Sandy Hook, states started targeting the marketing of these weapons because that, they figured, was an opening they could exploit.

These lawsuits aren’t about anything but punitive action against an industry they simply don’t like existing.

Oh, they’d settle for something short of bankrupting the entire industry, but it would probably be forcing them to adopt anti-gun policies that make it harder for us to obtain their products, if not impossible.

This isn’t about justice but about punishment, all so they can make it as difficult as possible for us to exercise our right to keep and bear arms, all without having to worry about the Supreme Court striking down a single law.

After all, if the seller of a good refuses to sell to anyone but the military or law enforcement, what can the courts really do?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think they’d ever be able to make that happen, especially since a number of gun companies don’t have a shot at military or police contracts. They have to have sales to private citizens or shut down for good, and they’re not going to do that just to appease the folks in Buffalo.

It’s not a tax grab, though. It’s a calculated assault on our Second Amendment rights despite not for justice, but to infringe on our rights in a way that’s more difficult to counter. That’s what these lawsuits have always been about.