I DON'T TRUST THE SUPREME COURT ON GUNS

This seems like good news, but I'm skeptical:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down a request from the gun industry intended to block a lawsuit from families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims.

The decision lets stand a groundbreaking ruling from the Connecticut Supreme Court that said the manufacturer of the Bushmaster AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle can be sued and potentially held liable for the 2012 massacre in Newtown, Conn.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the ruling, without comment from any individual justice.

A conservative court should have blocked this lawsuit, right? The fact that it allowed the suit to proceed is a good sign. Right?

I'm not so sure.

The Connecticut Supreme Court found a narrow exception in the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which since 2005 has made it almost impossible to sue gun manufacturers for what users do with guns.

The narrow state court decision limited liability for gunmakers based on how they advertise their firearms.... In its ruling, the court said companies that market military-style guns to civilians as a way of killing enemies could be violating state fair-trade laws....

Remington had convinced a lower court that federal law prevented the families’ lawsuit. But Connecticut’s high court said that the law had exceptions and that one of them was meant for state consumer protection laws.

Here's why I think the Federalist Five didn't step in to shut down the suit. They're all partisan Republicans. They don't want the Sandy Hook families to win, ultimately. But they wouldn't object to a plaintiff's win in state court. That would anger and infuriate pro-gun voters and inspire them to vote Republican in greater numbers.

And then the case itself could come to the High Court. If I'm estimating the timing correctly, the Connecticut Supreme Court will probably rule on this sometime next year -- and if Remington loses and appeals the case, the U.S. Supreme Court could take it up in time for a ruling after the 2020 election. An anti-gun decision headed to a Supreme Court that -- omigod -- could be remade by Warren/Biden/Buttigieg would really drive gun-lover turnout on Donald Trump's behalf.

Then, assuming either Trump has won or a new Democratic president hasn't managed to replace a conservative Supreme Court justice, the case will go to the five Federalists and they'll rule in Remington's favor -- and possibly further restrict the already narrow exception to the blanket ban on lawsuits against gun makers. Win-win!

Am I being too cynical? I don't think so.