Glock-A-Roo
Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2003
- Messages
- 57
California court rejects anti-gun lawsuits
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/11/BAG6CB9EL81.DTL
SAN FRANCISCO
Court rejects suits against gun makers
- Bob Egelko
Friday, February 11, 2005
Lawsuits against major gun manufacturers by San Francisco and nine other cities and counties, accusing them of carelessly supplying firearms to high- risk dealers who sell them to criminals, were rejected Thursday by a state appeals court.
In the suits, filed in 1999, local governments said that gun makers flooded the market with more weapons than could be sold legally and turned a blind eye to practices of the small percentage of retailers that sold guns disproportionately used in crimes. Several other municipalities around the nation have filed similar suits, which would be banned by gun industry-backed legislation now pending in Congress.
The suit was dismissed in 2003 by a San Diego Superior Court judge, who said no connection had been shown between any action by the manufacturers and the harm cased by illegal gun sales. The Court of Appeal in San Francisco, where the case was assigned for appeal, acknowledged the devastation caused by guns in American society but said the cities and counties had no legal case against the manufacturers.
The defendants were engaged only in "marketing their product in a lawful manner to federally licensed dealers,'' whose allegedly illegal actions they neither encouraged nor controlled, the court said.
Besides San Francisco, Northern California communities involved in the suit included Alameda and San Mateo counties and the cities of Sacramento and Berkeley.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/11/BAG6CB9EL81.DTL
SAN FRANCISCO
Court rejects suits against gun makers
- Bob Egelko
Friday, February 11, 2005
Lawsuits against major gun manufacturers by San Francisco and nine other cities and counties, accusing them of carelessly supplying firearms to high- risk dealers who sell them to criminals, were rejected Thursday by a state appeals court.
In the suits, filed in 1999, local governments said that gun makers flooded the market with more weapons than could be sold legally and turned a blind eye to practices of the small percentage of retailers that sold guns disproportionately used in crimes. Several other municipalities around the nation have filed similar suits, which would be banned by gun industry-backed legislation now pending in Congress.
The suit was dismissed in 2003 by a San Diego Superior Court judge, who said no connection had been shown between any action by the manufacturers and the harm cased by illegal gun sales. The Court of Appeal in San Francisco, where the case was assigned for appeal, acknowledged the devastation caused by guns in American society but said the cities and counties had no legal case against the manufacturers.
The defendants were engaged only in "marketing their product in a lawful manner to federally licensed dealers,'' whose allegedly illegal actions they neither encouraged nor controlled, the court said.
Besides San Francisco, Northern California communities involved in the suit included Alameda and San Mateo counties and the cities of Sacramento and Berkeley.