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Newark gun-violence suit advances
Appeals court sees possible link between makers and results, refuses to dismiss action
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
BY RUDY LARINI
Star-Ledger Staff
The firearms industry suffered a setback in New Jersey yesterday in its effort to fend off lawsuits by cities and counties seeking compensation for costs associated with gun violence.
A state appeals court refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Newark against gun manufacturers and dealers, allowing that case and two other lawsuits by Camden and Jersey City to proceed to trial.
Gun control advocates said the ruling was especially significant because it contradicts the legal reasoning of a ruling last year by a federal appeals court in Philadelphia that dismissed a suit against gun makers brought by Camden County.
The three-judge panel that issued yesterday's decision concluded that the federal court's analysis "does not fit squarely" with the way New Jersey courts traditionally have interpreted state law.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun manufacturers' trade association, said it was considering whether to appeal the latest ruling to the New Jersey Supreme Court.
The foundation also called for passage of legislation introduced in Congress last week that would grant the gun industry immunity from lawsuits brought by victims of gun violence, as well as cities and counties.
Newark, Camden and Jersey City are among more than 30 cities and counties nationwide that have sued an array of gun manufacturers and dealers, seeking compensation for law enforcement, medical and other costs that they contend result from gun violence.
Newark Mayor Sharpe James hailed yesterday's appellate court ruling for allowing "Newark and other New Jersey cities to move forward with litigation against the gun manufacturers, who should be held accountable.
"Throughout this country we have witnessed the atrocities -- the murders, maiming and injuries -- inflicted by the illegal use of guns," the mayor said. "Manufacturers must be made to provide safety locks on their weapons. They must be involved in insuring that dealers, distributors and sellers are properly screened and are not selling weapons to young people and individuals with criminal records."
Newark's lawsuit, filed in June 1999, claims gun manufacturers have negligently oversupplied the area with weapons, provided misleading information about their danger and failed to equip them with safety devices, such as trigger locks.
The lawsuit also accused gun makers of failing to supervise distributors, leading to sales on the illegal market.
In the Camden County case, the federal courts accepted the gun industry's argument that harm caused by gun violence is "too remote" from the conduct of manufacturers and dealers to warrant damage claims against them.
But the New Jersey court said it does not seem "highly extraordinary" for the city to claim that the gun manufacturers' "alleged purposeful or negligent 'feeding' of guns to an illegal secondary gun market through their manufacturing, advertising and distribution scheme would yield the criminal use of the firearms in Newark..."
Yesterday's ruling follows similar decisions by the Ohio Supreme Court in a Cincinnati case and the Illinois Court of Appeals in a Chicago case.
"Appellate courts in three states now have issued landmark rulings establishing the legal foundation for the gun industry to be held accountable for fueling the illegal gun market in urban areas," said Brian J. Siebel, a senior attorney for the legal action project at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which joined Newark in the city lawsuit as a friend of the court. "In state after state, the industry's legal defenses are falling like a house of cards."
Siebel said yesterday's ruling could provide a basis for overturning a decision last week by a San Diego judge, who relied on the federal court ruling in the Camden County case to dismiss gun manufacturers and distributors from a similar suit brought by 12 California municipalities.
New Jersey's efforts to stem gun violence led to a law signed by Gov. James E. McGreevey in December making the state the first in the nation to require that handguns sold in New Jersey be equipped with so-called "smart gun" technology, which would prevent anyone but their owners from firing them. The requirement would take effect three years after the state Attorney General's Office concludes that the technology is safe and workable.
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Copyright 2003 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.