U.S. Appeals Court Rejects City’s Suit to Curb Guns (Jack the hack & Bloomberg are slapped.)

NY Times ^ | May 1, 2008 | ALAN FEUER

[neverdem]

A federal appeals court threw out New York City’s longstanding lawsuit against the gun industry on Wednesday, ruling that a relatively new federal law protects gun makers against such suits.

The appellate ruling killed perhaps the boldest avenue by which the city has sought to stem the flow of illegal guns into New York: a claim that gun makers and distributors have knowingly flooded illicit, underground markets with their weapons.

The city’s suit, filed in 2000, was upheld in December 2005 by Judge Jack B. Weinstein of Federal District Court in Brooklyn. Judge Weinstein allowed it to move forward, despite protests by gun makers like Beretta U.S.A., Browning Arms, Colt Manufacturing, Glock and Smith & Wesson, all of which cited a federal law that had been passed two months earlier.

That law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, banned all suits against the gun industry except those in which a plaintiff could prove that gun makers had violated state or federal statutes in their sales and marketing practices.

The city contended that the gun makers did exactly that, by failing to monitor retail dealers closely enough and, therefore, by allowing guns to end up in the hands of criminals. As a result, the city said, the manufacturers had created a “condition that negatively affects the public health or safety” and, thus, had violated New York State’s public-nuisance law. It requested an injunction.

But the Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that argument, ruling that the nuisance law did not constitute a permissible exception under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. It reversed Judge Weinstein’s decision and ordered the suit dismissed.

One judge on the three-judge panel, Robert A. Katzmann, dissented, arguing that the New York State Court of Appeals should have been asked to decide whether,..

[A Navy Vet]

"That law...had violated New York State’s public-nuisance law."

Are you kidding me? "Public-nuisance law"??? Have these people lost their minds?

[43north]

I find it hard to believe that there IS such a thing as a public nuisance law in New York with the likes of Chucky Schumer, Charlie Rangel, Mikey Bloomberg, Al Sharpton, et al walking free.

[sergeantdave]

Did congress just pass a law under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, or did it actually carve out an exception under Section III forbidding the courts to hear such cases?

If it didn’t specifically forbid the courts from hearing these frivolous cases, I can bet the Marxists will chip away at this law until penumbras and exceptions form around the atmosphere and once again attack our rights.

[Condor51]

A federal appeals court threw out New York City’s longstanding lawsuit against the gun industry on Wednesday

[Just a reminder, this was ROOTY'S lawsuit. He filed it not Bloomie]

[freedomfiter2]

The city’s suit, filed in 2000,

Don’t you miss Guiliani?

[wastedyears]

I don’t miss that poo-head at all.

[neverdem]

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From time to time, I’ll ping on noteworthy articles about politics, foreign and military affairs. FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!