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from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/apr03/135525.asp
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/apr03/135525.asp
GOP pushes state ban on suing gun manufacturersPassage likely, but Doyle questions need
By STEVEN WALTERS
[email protected]
Last Updated: April 22, 2003
Madison - Republicans this week open a new push to make it impossible for Wisconsin citizens and local governments to sue gun manufacturers over shooting deaths or injuries, and the new GOP majority in the Legislature makes passage of it likely this time.
Opponents of the bill promise to fight it at every corner of the Capitol, however.
Americans "don't care about people as much as we do about that weapon," said Verdell De Yarman, a volunteer for the non-profit Peace Action group in Milwaukee.
Despite other opposition from Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, mayors of the state's two largest cities and some Democratic legislators, Republicans have scheduled a Thursday public hearing before a state Assembly committee on their bill to give broad legal immunity to gun manufacturers, dealers and shooting and sports clubs.
The bill already has widespread support among Republicans, who control both the Assembly and Senate. Over the last four years, Democrats who ran the state Senate blocked any votes on the proposal. If the measure passes the Legislature, it would be sent to the desk of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, who stopped short of saying he would veto the bill but questioned the need for it.
Sponsor says protection needed
Gun manufacturers and sports clubs need immunity because anti-gun forces are increasingly turning to the nation's courts to try to shut down the industry and regulate guns, said Rep. Mark Pettis (R-Hertel), chief Assembly sponsor of the bill.
Several large cities and the state of New York have sued gun manufacturers for damages or reimbursement for medical costs to care for shooting victims. Milwaukee considered suing gun manufacturers but decided against it because "we didn't think we'd win," Mayor John O. Norquist said Tuesday.
Pettis said his bill is necessary because gun-control groups "can't get things done through the ballot box, so they make an end run and use the court system." He said his bill would still let gun makers be sued if injury or death resulted from a design defect or illegal sale.
The cost of litigation will bankrupt gun makers, predicted Pettis, who said his bill would also extend immunity to shooting and sports clubs so they could not be sued if any gun they give away as a fund-raising prize is used to kill or wound someone. Pettis said one sport club in western Wisconsin gave away 125 guns as raffle prizes.
The bill "adds additional protection to the Second Amendment right," added Rep. Mark Gundrum (R-New Berlin), referring to the constitutional right to own a gun.
Cigarette manufacturers, who have had to pay out billions of dollars because of similar lawsuits, wish they had pushed similar legal immunity bills through the states 10 years ago, said Gundrum, a co-sponsor of the bill and chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to hold Thursday's 11 a.m. hearing in the Capitol.
Most states have similar laws
About 30 states already have enacted laws giving gun makers immunity from the criminal acts of others, Jeff Reh, general counsel for gun manufacturer Beretta USA, said Tuesday.
Fairness is a key reason why Wisconsin should join those states, Reh said. "You can't blame a manufacturer of a gun" when, years after it was made, a criminal uses something that is legal to hurt or kill, he added.
Any new Wisconsin law giving gun manufacturers immunity from lawsuits could be pre-empted, if Congress passes a national standard, officials said. The U.S. House recently passed a similar bill, and the U.S. Senate may debate it soon. Pettis, however, said his proposal is broader than the federal legislation.
Norquist predicted that the bill will pass the Legislature "overwhelmingly" because Milwaukee-area Democrats are the only legislators who can vote against it without worrying about their political futures.
The issue is one of those that the National Rifle Association uses on its scorecards that rate legislators as election-year friends or enemies, the mayor said, adding: "I don't think it's worth fighting over. The feds are going to pass it, anyway."
Still, the bill "tramples on local control" - the concept that Wisconsin cities, towns, villages and counties should be able to sue whomever they want, Norquist said.
Lautenschlager, the Democratic attorney general, said Tuesday that she opposes legal immunity for gun manufacturers because the nation's legal system is supposed to guarantee "citizens remedies in courts of law." The Republicans' proposal "absolutely forecloses" a citizen's right to turn to one of three branches of government - the judicial system - to hold one industry accountable, she said.
Is legislation needed?
Dan Ullrich, program director for the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort, said the bill is based on a "false premise" - that there is a need to protect gun manufacturers from frivolous lawsuits in Wisconsin.
But there has not been a single Wisconsin lawsuit filed against those manufacturers because of a shooting death or injury, Ullrich said.
"It would offer a special protection that has not been offered to any other industry - ever," he said. "There's nothing out there that is comparable."
Democratic Rep. Dave Travis of Waunakee, who tried and failed to slow the bill when it passed the Assembly early in 2000, said it remains a "nutty" proposal that would give legal immunity to anyone who even "touched or looked at a gun."
Republicans want to "deny legal rights to all sorts of individuals, grant legal immunity to various groups and individuals that are not available to other groups and individuals," Travis said.
A former attorney general often criticized by state and national NRA leaders, the Democratic governor would not directly say Tuesday whether he would veto the bill, but he said GOP lawmakers should focus their efforts on the state budget.
"At a time when we face a $3.2 billion deficit, we have much more pressing concerns than giving special treatment to the gun industry," Doyle said in a statement. "I can see no reason why the gun industry should be treated differently from every other business in Wisconsin."
© Copyright 2003, Journal Sentinel Inc.
