Gun Industry Wins Lawsuit Protection

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The New York Sun

WASHINGTON – Congress voted yesterday to sweep away the ability of gun crime victims to sue firearms manufacturers and dealers for damages, answering complaints by President Bush and the gun industry that big jury awards could lead to bankruptcy.


Opponents called the 283-144 vote in the House proof of the gun lobby’s power over the Republican-controlled Congress, but Mr. Bush said he looked forward to signing the bill. “Our laws should punish criminals who use guns to commit crimes, not law-abiding manufacturers of lawful products,” the president said.


The Senate passed the bill, 65-31, in July.


The bill’s passage was the National Rifle Association’s top legislative priority, and gave Mr. Bush and his Republican allies on Capitol Hill a rare victory at a politically troubled time when several top White House officials and GOP congressional leaders are under investigation.


When Mr. Bush signs the measure into law, a half-dozen pending lawsuits filed by cities and counties against the gun industry would be dismissed. The localities that are plaintiffs to those suits include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cleveland, Gary, Ind., and New York City. Antigun groups said pending suits by families of people murdered in gun crimes also could be dismissed.


“This is a get-out-of-liability-free card,” said John Russo, city attorney for Oakland, one of 11 cities and counties in California whose suits against the industry would be dismissed.


“If you were to do something that brought harm to somebody else, you would be subject under the laws of your state to a lawsuit,” he added. “I guess that does not apply to gun manufacturers.”


Closely watched is a Massachusetts case in which the family of Danny Guzman – killed with a handgun stolen from Kahr Arms – is suing the company, alleging it did not have enough security at its factory, according to a staff attorney with the Brady Center To Prevent Hand gun Violence, Daniel Vice. Guzman, 26, was shot in 1999 outside a Worcester nightclub with a 9mm handgun stolen by a Kahr employee with a criminal record, the family’s attorney said.


Defense attorneys could cite the just passed bill in a motion to dismiss, Mr. Vice said. Brady Center lawyers for the family would then argue that the bill is unconstitutional because it violates due process and dictates policies of state courts. But supporters of the bill say it still would permit lawsuits against importers, manufacturers, and dealers where criminal wrongdoing is found. Gun makers and dealers still would be subject to product liability, negligence, or breach of contract suits, the bill’s authors say.


The point, say the bill’s sponsors, is to stop anti-gun activists from running the industry out of business by filing lawsuits that at best cost money in lawyers’ fees and at worst could bring large damage awards. “Lawsuits seeking to hold the firearms industry responsible for the criminal and unlawful use of its products are brazen attempts to accomplish through litigation what has not been achieved by legislation and the democratic process,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, a Republican of Wisconsin, told his colleagues.


Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Republican of Texas, did not vote. He was in Houston yesterday being booked in connection with his indictment in an alleged scheme to violate state election law.


Propelled by GOP election gains and the incidents of lawlessness associated with Hurricane Katrina, support for gun rights has grown since a similar measure passed the House last year and was killed in the Senate.


The New York Sun

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