Holding Gun Corporations Responsible

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Last week, Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell met with top executives from
major handgun manufacturers Smith & Wesson, Glock Inc., O.F. Mossberg, and
an industry trade group, the American Shooting Sports Council.

Why? The handgun industry is concerned that the city of Philadelphia is
about to file a lawsuit seeking to hold the companies liable for the gun
violence that claims one human life every day in the city.

The United States leads the world in people who are killed and injured by
handguns -- 25,000 a year dead, compared to a few hundred in every other
industrialized country.

Last year, the police in the city of Philadelphia, together with a diverse
group of citizen activists, came together as the Youth Violence Task Force
to discuss possible solutions to the gun violence in the city.

Unlike most other cities, where handgun violence has decreased
dramatically over the past couple of years, Philadelphia has seen a steady
flow of bloodshed.

Philadelphia police officers teamed up with agents from the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to research the problem. They tracked all
38,000 handgun sales in the Philadelphia area over the course of a year
and made a startling finding. Fully 30 percent of the handguns purchased
in the Philadelphia area were purchased by someone who bought three or
more in that period and averaged over five -- more than any individual
might conceivably need for the ostensible purpose of self-defense. Nine
percent of the purchasers are buying 30 percent of the handguns in the
Philadelphia area.

This was an eye-opener to task force member David Kairys, whose day job is
professor of law at Temple University Law School. Kairys concluded that
gun manufacturers are feeding off the criminal element.

"The companies use our lax laws and our cultural glorification of guns and
violence to deflect attention from themselves," Kairys told us. "And the
city of Philadelphia is going to incur costs connected with the product,
starting with a 911 call, cleaning up blood off the streets, medical
costs, which in some cities are borne by the city, all the way to the
support of a child who might be orphaned as a result of gun violence."

Kairys drafted a memo on how Philadelphia could hold the gun manufacturers
liable for the bloodshed caused by guns. Mayor Ed Rendell, who is planning
a run for governor of Pennsylvania, liked the memo and hired Kairys to
draft a lawsuit against the major gun companies.

Kairys concedes that the companies cannot be held liable under current
product liability law because, generally speaking, guns are not defective
-- they kill as advertised.

Instead, Kairys proposes suing the manufacturers for negligence, public
nuisance and fraud.

The companies create a public nuisance by interfering with the public's
right to health, safety and peace by funnelling handguns to criminals.

In support of this argument, Kairys cites the testimony of Robert Hass
former executive at Smith & Wesson, the nation's largest handgun
manufacturer.

"The company and the industry as a whole are fully aware of the extent of
the criminal misuse of firearms," Hass testified in a New York case in
1996. "The company and the industry are also aware that the black market
in firearms is not simply the result of stolen guns but is due to the
seepage of guns into the illicit market from multiple thousands of
unsupervised federal firearms licensees. In spite of their knowledge,
however, the industry's position has consistently been to take no
independent action to insure responsible distribution practices."

Kairys cites the rapid-firing Intratec DC-9s, promoted by the manufacturer
for its "excellent resistance to fingerprints."

He also cites advertisements from gun magazines and general circulation
journals such as Ladies Home Journal, which advertise guns as necessary to
keep everyone in the house safe.

Kairys argues that such claims are fraudulent and negligent.

"If you bring a gun into your home, it is several times more likely that
someone will die by a gun," Kairys reports. "And it is five times more
likely you will have a suicide, and 10 times more likely you will have a
suicide if you have a teenager in your home."

Kairys began drafting a lawsuit to present to Rendell. But in the summer
of 1997, word leaked to the media, and the gun supporters in Pennsylvania
pounded Rendell into political pulp.

Rendell got rid of Kairys earlier this year. But Kairys has published his
views in the upcoming Temple Law Review. News of his proposal reached
mayors in Chicago, Detroit and Miami, who are considering suing the gun
companies.

The cover is about to blown off an industry that has caused immeasurable
damage. It is about time.

Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
Multinational Monitor.

(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

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