A small writing mis-take?

From the New York Times:

• Congress is on the case. It dropped everything last week to pass a bill to protect gun makers from shooting victims' lawsuits.

This means the bill will keep gun makers from shooting (firing a weapon at) victims' lawsuits. Why would gun makers shoot at victims' lawsuits? Doesn't do much good to shoot at lawsuits. You gotta answer them, not shoot them, right?

Should have been--

• Congress is on the case. It dropped everything last week to pass a bill to protect gun makers from shooting-victims' lawsuits.

It just needed a hyphen.