Printed in the USA.
The Gottlieb-Tartaro Report
Issue 059
November, 1999
The recent wave of lawsuits against the firearms industry is hitting a few rocks.
An Ohio judge recently dismissed Cincinnati’s suit against gun manufacturers, a distributor and three trade associations. There are 17 similar lawsuits representing 27 city or county governments now pending before various courts. The Cincinnati suit was the first to be dismissed.
Cincinnati had demanded reimbursement for the costs of providing police, emergency, court and prison services in connection with shootings in the city, regardless whether they were homicides, suicides, or accidents.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge ROBERT RUEHLMAN ruled that the suit was vague and unsupported by law or prior court decisions.
The Cincinnati City Council has appealed the decision to the First Ohio District Court of Appeals. The council’s vote to appeal was split 5 to 4.
Following up on the Cincinnati dismissal, Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) president RICHARD PEARSON released a statement asking Chicago Mayor RICHARD M. DALEY to withdraw his city’s anti-gun lawsuit.
"In light of the Cincinnati decision, I’m asking Mayor DALEY to withdraw Chicago’s lawsuit as an example to the other mayors currently pursuing actions against firearm manufacturers."
Another case with good news: A Georgia judge threw out part of Atlanta’s suit against gun manufacturers and kept part of it.
Fulton State Court Judge M. GINO BROGDON dismissed the city’s strict liability claims, but saved the negligence claims for further consideration under future summary judgment motions.
BROGDON agreed with the gun makers that because the city is not a "natural person," it cannot bring suit under strict product liability.
City attorneys said they were satisfied with the decision, noting that it keeps their lawsuit alive, even though with only half the claims.
Under the surviving negligence claims, they hope to gain gun makers’ marketing and distribution documents through the discovery process, documents they say will embarrass gun manufacturers.
In an individual case, a Baltimore Circuit Judge threw out a mother’s lawsuit alleging that a gun manufacturer and a store that sells pistols were responsible for the death of her 3-year-old child.
Sturm, Ruger & Co. said the child’s father had been given ample warnings that his 9mm semiautomatic handgun should be kept away from children. Judge EVELYN OMEGA CANNON agreed.
And to cap things off, the Los Angeles County ban on gun sales at the world’s biggest gun show was blocked by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge RICHARD PAEZ said the county is trying to pre-empt state law, which allows gun shows to operate with sales on the premises.
It’s good to have this positive news to report!
CALIFORNIA GUN BUY-BACK PROGRAM NOT WORKING
• A $1.4 million California state buyback program designed to take "illegal assault rifles" off the streets hasn’t found a lot of customers.
The Legislature gave the Department of Justice enough money to buy back 5,000 SKS Sporters from their owners. The state is offering $230 per gun, about $100 more than it is usually worth, but owners have only sold the state 350 of the firearms.
Since no records are kept on the number of SKS Sporters sold or brought into the state, no one knows if that is more or less than the number of guns actually on the street.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer said through a spokesman, "There’s just not a good way to find out how many are out there. The $1 million budget was an educated guess. We truly don’t know how many there are."
Chuck Michel, a lawyer for the National Rifle Association, the California Rifle and Pistol Association and the Second Amendment Foundation said the state Justice Department isn’t seeing results because they aren’t letting people know about he buyback and the impending deadline.
"There are a lot of people out there who become accidental felons under this," said Michel, "but if you don’t hear about it, you can’t do anything. There was supposed to be a hell of a lot more publicity."
Of the gun buyback program’s $1.4 million budget, $300,000 was allotted for publicity. The attorney general’s office has spent $234,000 of that on television and radio ads and posters.
COLORADO GUN SUPPORTERS TURN OUT IN NUMBERS
• An overflow crowd recently showed up to hear an Atlanta emergency room doctor tell Colorado Springs residents they’re better off without guns in their homes.
They didn’t buy it.
The crowd attending a session titled "Guns, Violence and Public Health" boisterously challenged Dr. ARTHUR KELLERMAN’s research concluding that homes in which guns are kept are three times more likely to be a homicide scene than homes without a firearm. KELLERMAN is well known as an advocate for looking at gunshot wounds as a public health issue instead of a public safety issue.
The city’s Centennial Hall reached its capacity of 300 more than 15 minutes before the session began, prompting police to close access and set up a speaker system for the 200 or more who couldn’t get into the hall.
The panel included El Paso County Sheriff JOHN ANDERSON, who received loud applause for his plan to grant more concealed weapons permits in El Paso County.
ANTI-HANDGUN REFERENDUM BARRED FROM BALLOT
• Takoma Park, Maryland, won’t be voting on a handgun ban this election. Circuit Court Judge VINCENT E. FERRETTI Jr. has ruled that a referendum aimed at banning handguns in this Washington, D.C. suburb should be removed from the ballot because the questions didn’t follow state law.
State law prevents municipalities from enacting gun control laws except under narrow exceptions. The Judge ruled that voting on a gun ban would be a "misuse of the election process."
MICHAEL L. COHEN, a 20-year resident of Takoma Park, was one of two people to sue the city over the proposed referendum. "This is a state issue," COHEN said.
GUNS IN THE NEWS
CIVIL LIBERTIES INFRINGEMENT PRIZE AWARDEDOK, so it’s tongue-in-cheek. But the "Civil Liberties Infringement Prize" (CLIP) has been awarded to the Honorable J. JOSEPH CURRAN, Jr., attorney general of Maryland.
The CLIP was awarded by JOHN MICHAEL SNYDER, public affairs director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
The mock award, said SNYDER, recognizes "the awardee’s efforts to eliminate personal and public safety in the United States by undermining the individual Second Amendment right of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms for the defense of life, liberty and property."
CURRAN got the award, said SNYDER, for his recent 58-page report, "A Farewell to Arms," which contained a call for an eventual ban on private handgun possession in Maryland (nicknamed "The Free State").
The award may be humorous, but the reasons for giving it to CURRAN are not.
CURRAN said in the report, "Our public policy goal must be to rid our communities of handguns."
CURRAN’s immediate legislative goals include tightening background checks on potential gun owners, prohibiting people from carrying concealed weapons in public places and ease liability laws to make it easier to sue gunmakers. He supports legislation that would make illegal gun possession and sales a felony. They are now misdemeanors. He also wants to give police officers additional powers to investigate what he called "gun trafficking."
CURRAN told reporters, "Handguns should be the province of the military or law enforcement or a special segment of people, such as some sporting enthusiasts or shopkeepers needing protection."
CURRAN is also considering whether to sue gun manufacturers for the violence of criminals using firearms.
Maryland Gov. PARRIS N. GLENDENNING has put gun control on the front burner of his legislative agenda for this coming winter. GLENDENNING has pushed "smart gun" technology that would prevent handguns from being fired by anyone but their owners.
SNYDER said, "It’s time to free the Free State from these enemies of the people."
SANFORD ABRAMS, vice president of the Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association, Inc., said, "Violent crime is coming down and CURRAN picks this time to say, ‘Ban firearms?’ Curran wants a police state. If you only let police officers have weapons, then citizens are their subjects, not their controllers."
JOHN SNYDER has been named "dean" of gun lobbyists by the Washington Post, New York Times and other major media for his outstanding work with Congress.
MOVIE STAR DOUGLAS TELLS ALBANIANS TO HAND IN THEIR GUNS
MICHAEL DOUGLAS has made a good part of his living by toting a gun on the silver screen, but the Hollywood icon recently visited Albania to tell Albanians to hand over weapons in exchange for development aid.
DOUGLAS, who played a gun-toting cop in the film Black Rain, stepped into a pair of orange overalls and goggles to help destroy two Kalashnikov automatic rifles in the remote southeastern town of Gramsh.
The United Nations was the real force behind the publicity stunt by DOUGLAS: the occasion was actually the concluding ceremony of a one million dollar project by the United Nations Development Program to offer Albanians improved infrastructure in return for handing over guns.DOUGLAS told reporters in the Albanian city of Tirana, "I am grateful to the United Nations because I am an easy target as an actor who has made movies which have had weapons in them."
The program has collected some 6,700 firearms and 100 tons of ammunition since it began in January.
In 1997, Albanians rioted over the collapse of fraudulent investment schemes and looted Army depots where they seized hundreds of thousands of military weapons.
PENNSYLVANIA OFFICIALS ANNOUNCE "OPERATION HARD TIME"
Pennsylvania Attorney General MIKE FISHER and seven district attorneys from throughout the state recently announced Operation Hard Time, a law enforcement initiative designed to combat the problem of convicted felons illegally possessing firearms.
FISHER and the district attorneys are asking the state legislature to increase the penalty for illegal possession of a firearm from a first-degree misdemeanor to a second-degree felony.
Under current law, FISHER said, illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon is merely a first-degree misdemeanor, technically punishable by five years in prison, but sentencing guidelines are so weak that those convicted are serving little or no time in prison.
Under Operation Hard Time, the penalty for the second-degree felony would carry a maximum of 10 years in prison.
FISHER said the attorneys would also petition the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing to increase the offense gravity score, which judges use as a guide for imposing a sentence, from the current score of four or five to a score of nine.
By implementing these changes, the maximum penalty for a convicted felon possessing a firearm would be 10 years in prison and the recommended minimum sentence would be 18 to 30 months in prison.
LOS ANGELES CRACKS DOWN ON ILLEGAL FIREARMS USE
A six-month technology pilot project at the Century Sheriff’s Station in Los Angeles County will equip law enforcement with the most advanced means available for quickly identifying, locating and responding to illegal gunfire.
The technologies include ShotSpotter, the world’s only proven gunshot detection system (by Trilon Technology); The Communicator, a high-speed notification system (by Dialogic Communications Corporation); and ShotSpotter Mapping & Database graphical interface (by Bradshaw Consulting Services).
The Century Station patrols the Firestone area, plagued with drive-by shootings, gang violence and drug-related crime. In 1997, the Los Angeles Daily News reported an average of three people each day killed by gunfire in LA County, more than half of them innocent bystanders.
Within seconds of a shot being fired, ShotSpotter zeros in on the event, pinpoints the precise location and displays the information on a police dispatcher’s computer screen using the ShotSpotter Mapping and Database map. The Communicator then swiftly notifies area residents, businesses and response teams (by telephone, pager or cellular) of firearms activity. They can then transfer to a dispatcher and give tips on a confidential basis.
These revolutionary new technologies show great promise in crime fighting. This pilot project will provide real-world information on its effectiveness.
SOUTH AFRICA WANTS TO CONTROL ILLEGAL GUNS
South African officials want to make it tougher to acquire gun licenses in hopes of reducing the number of illegal firearms in the nation, which is fed by the thefts of tens of thousands of legal weapons every year.
The proposal to stiffen licensing requirements has angered both black and white gun owner groups, since it will do nothing to lower the gun crime rate.
Blacks, Asians and mixed-race people in South Africa were prevented from legally owning guns until apartheid ended in 1994. They are particularly concerned that the African National Congress-led government will prevent poor nonwhites from owning weapons and defending themselves from the country’s crime wave.
According to draft proposals the government sent to gun groups, it wanted to increase fees tenfold and introduce expensive psychological testing, two measures that would put legal weapons out of reach of poor nonwhites, who account for more than 80 percent of the population.
Gun ownership creates stability, say critics of the government’s plan.
A LOOK AT THE STATES
CALIFORNIA: State lawmakers are preparing for hearings in early December on legislation requiring prospective handgun buyers to be licensed by the State Department of Justice.
Governor Gray Davis (D), however, has asked them not to send any further gun control legislation his way for the remainder of the 1999-2000 legislative session. He proposed this moratorium after rejecting three firearm-related bills, stating he "would like the feedback from law enforcement officials, including prosecutors, on the effectiveness of these bills before burdening them with additional responsibilities."
CONNECTICUT: Misinformation from anti-gun lawmakers and the media about S. 1166, which was signed into law last month, has been corrected.The law DOES NOT allow police to confiscate an individual’s firearms based simply on allegations of mental instability from a neighbor.
It DOES NOT allow the police to seize anyone’s guns just because they want to, or because someone thinks it’s a good idea.
Police must have clear and convincing evidence (which is a high legal standard) that creates probable cause that the person is dangerous.
LOUISIANA: Louisiana residents with licenses to carry concealed handguns can now take them along on trips to Florida or Kentucky. Louisiana has entered into agreements with the two states to honor valid concealed-handgun permits, according to Col. W.R. "Rut" WHITTINGTON, head of the Louisiana state Department of Public Safety.Agreements already existed with Texas and Tennessee, WHITTINGTON said, and four other states honor such permits without a formal agreement: Idaho, Michigan, Vermont and Wyoming.
Concealed handgun permit holders are bound by the laws of the jurisdiction where they are carrying their concealed handguns, WHITTINGTON said.
NEW JERSEY: Gov. CHRISTIE WHITMAN recently signed a bill requiring that trigger locks or gun storage lockers be sold with every handgun purchased at stores and gun shows.California passed a similar law earlier this year.
WHITMAN said she had not read the more restrictive "childproof handgun" bill sponsored by Senate President DONALD DiFRANCESCO (R-Union) and passed by the Senate. DiFRANCESCO’s bill would permit only "childproof handguns" to be sold in New Jersey as soon as two manufacturers offer guns with computer chips or other devices that prevent them from firing for unauthorized users.
NEW YORK: New York City gun owners will have to use trigger locks or face up to a year in jail under a new law passed recently by the city council.The unanimous vote altered a 1998 law that made gun sellers responsible for issuing safety devices but didn’t require gun owners to use them.
Mayor RUDOLPH GIULIANI supported the added requirement.
Chicago, San Francisco and Massachusetts have similar trigger lock requirements.
OHIO: A new group has been formed to support efforts to pass Right To Carry legislation.Ohioans For Concealed Carry is a grassroots organization that is gathering petitions in support of HB 165. The group has a Web site at http://www.ofcc.net
PENNSYLVANIA: The House of Representatives has soundly defeated two anti-gun amendments to non-firearms-related bills.
The first, offered by Rep. BABETTE JOSEPHS (D-Philadelphia), would have exempted Philadelphia from the current firearms preemption statute.
The second, offered by Rep. DWIGHT EVANS (D-Philadelphia), would have given municipalities the power to sue gun manufacturers.
BUSH UNDER POLITICAL FIRE FOR PRO-GUN RECORD
Anti-gun political forces are criticizing Texas Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH for signing a 1997 law that allows people to carry a concealed gun into church unless a clearly posted sign forbids it.
Since a shooting at a Texas church on September 15, gun control advocates have ridiculed BUSH as a puppet of the gun lobby, while some clergy have accused him of permitting too much access to firearms.
A week after the Wedgewood Baptist Church shooting in Fort Worth, Texas, BUSH announced a $1.6 million program to strengthen enforcement of existing gun laws in his state by appointing eight special prosecutors.
"The best way to protect our citizens is to vigorously enforce the tough laws we have on the books," BUSH said.
Handgun Control Inc. spokeswoman NANCY HWA said, "As long as George Bush carries the NRA line he is not going to really help prevent gun crime."
However, Texas Attorney General JOHN CORNYN thanked BUSH for the initiative.
BUSH includes in his political speeches a paragraph saying, "If you illegally sell a gun, we’re going to hold you accountable. If you illegally carry a gun, we’ll hold you accountable. If you commit a crime with a gun, we’re going to hold you accountable. In my state we call that kind of accountability jail."
GORE AND BRADLEY: GUN CONTROL TWINS
The two candidates for the 2000 Democratic presidential nomination, Vice President AL GORE and former Sen. BILL BRADLEY, have made gun control a centerpiece of their campaigns.
GORE has called for licensing of all gun owners.
BRADLEY wants licensing, but also wants the registration of all firearms.
AND THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS MAKES IT TRIPLETS
American Jewish Congress president JACK ROSEN says his organization is calling for legislation requiring, among other things, the licensing and registration of guns.
It’s part of the group’s "Stop the Guns: Protect Our Kids" drive to get a million petitions demanding that the U.S. Congress pass more gun control laws.
Joining the campaign was the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a national community relations group, and the Million Mom March, which will be held in Washington, D.C. on Mother’s Day to push gun control.
JCPA executive vice chair Dr. LAWRENCE RUBIN cited the gunman who attacked a day care center at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles. "What happened this summer underscores the importance of taking easy access to guns out of the hands of extremists and hate-filled, disturbed individuals. Gun safety should be put on the agenda of every community."
LAWSUITS SELL FABLED COLTS
Gun stores have reported a run on Colt handguns from customers buying what they fear will be the last civilian pistols and revolvers made by the company that invented the six-shooter.
After the manufacturer announced that it was moving away from the retail gun business, one of the largest firearms outlets in Colorado sold more than half the Colts in the store in a single day.
Colt executives said the company could no longer get manufacturing loans because the lawsuits it faces "could be worth zero, or a trillion dollars."Colt is among the defendants in 28 lawsuits, mostly filed by cities and counties, that seek to hold gun manufacturers responsible for the criminal use of guns.
Colt handguns, both semi-automatics and revolvers, are "going like hotcakes," said BILL MOLNAR, co-owner of the Gun Room in Lakewood, Colorado.
"It’s ridiculous. Colt is buckling under to the cities. Where do we stop suing? Do we sue the police department? Do we sue the military? Where does it stop?"
GUN NEWS TICKER SPECIAL FEATURE: GUN CONTROL TIMELINE
Here’s something we don’t often ask ourselves: Where did the whole gun control debate start? It would be easy to say it started shortly after November 22, 1963, when evidence in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy increased public awareness of the ease of buying firearms in America.
However, America’s history of regulating private ownership of firearms goes back much farther. In fact, all the way back to...
• 1791 The Bill of Rights, including Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms gained final ratification.
• 1837 Georgia passes a law banning handguns. The law is ruled unconstitutional and thrown out.
• 1865 In reaction to emancipation, several southern states adopt "black codes" which forbid black persons from possessing firearms.
• 1871 The National Rifle Association is organized around its primary goal of improving American civilians’ marksmanship in preparation for war.
• 1927 Congress passes a law banning the mailing of concealable weapons.
• 1934 The National Firearms Act of 1934 regulating only fully automatic firearms like sub-machine guns is approved by Congress.
• 1938 The Federal Firearms Act of 1938 places the first limitations on selling ordinary firearms. Persons selling guns are required to obtain a Federal Firearms Licensee, at an annual cost of $1, and to maintain records of the name and address of persons to whom firearms are sold. Gun sales to persons convicted of violent felonies were prohibited.
• 1968 The Gun control Act of 1968 "was enacted for the purpose of keeping firearms out of the hands of those not legally entitled to possess them because of age, criminal background, or incompetence."
• 1971 In response to the Gun Control Act of 1968, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms formed, becoming the first registered pro-gun lobby group with the U.S. Congress.
• 1972 The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is created listing as part of its mission the control of illegal use and sale of firearms and the enforcement of Federal firearms laws.
• 1974 The Second Amendment Foundation formed as the nation’s first and only pro-gun tax exempt education and legal defense fund.
• 1977 The District of Columbia enacts an anti-handgun law which also requires registration of all rifles and shotguns within the District of Columbia.
• 1986 The Armed Career Criminal Act increases penalties for possession of firearms by persons not qualified to own them under the Gun Control act of 1986.
The Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act bans possession of "cop killer" bullets capable of penetrating bulletproof clothing.
• 1989 California bans the possession of semiautomatic assault weapons following the massacre of five children on a Stockton, California school playground.
• 1990 The Crime Control Act of 1990 bans manufacturing and importing semiautomatic assault weapons in the U.S. "Gun free school zones" are established carrying specific penalties for violations.
• 1994 The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act imposes a five-day waiting period on the purchase of a handgun and requires that local law enforcement agencies conduct background checks on purchasers of handguns.
The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 bans all sale, manufacture, importation, or possession of a number of specific types of assault weapons.
• 1997 The Supreme Court, in the case of Printz v. United States, declares the background check requirement of the Brady Handgun violence Prevention Act unconstitutional.
• 1998 The National Instant Criminal Background Check (NICS) computer system goes into effect, a permanent provision of the Brady Act.
• 1999 And the battle goes on....
TEENS AND GUNS: BIG DANGER OR BIG STORY?
The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection had to defend its annual pheasant hunt for teen-agers against critics asserting that it glorifies guns at a time when school shootings are plaguing the nation.
But are school shootings plaguing the nation?
No, they’re not.
Who says? ABC News 20/20, that’s who. Here’s how it went:
BARBARA WALTERS: "Violence in our schools is up, right? And we should all be scared, right? Wrong, because John Stossel tells us that is just not the case. And he joins us now with Give Me A Break! And this week, I’m one of your targets."
JOHN STOSSEL: "You are. Though I should say, it’s not just you, Barbara. It’s all of us in the media. It is our job to report on what’s dangerous, and it’s the job of adults in schools to protect kids. But are we being responsible about it?"
Then Stossel parades a number of alarming headlines from Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather that give audiences the idea that school shootings are on the rise. Stossel comments:
"Of course, it’s a terrible thing when kids are killed in school, but shouldn’t we keep it in perspective? In the past six months, ABC’s evening news did 93 stories on Columbine High School alone. NBC did 97. CBS did 106.
"In truth, when kids are in school, they are safer than anyplace else. Safer than at the mall, safer than at home. Now, all the massive coverage of school shootings might be justified if school violence were getting worse, but it isn’t. Since 1992, schoolyard killings are down 50 percent. Not that you’d know from the reporting.
"Lightning kills more people. Bathtubs kill more kids. But the media’s obsessed with school shootings. We make it seem like this is likely to happen in your town soon.
"We’re terrorizing kids, when the truth is that, today, they’re safer than ever, especially in school. Let’s give it a break.
"OK, it’s a news story. We should cover it, but then, proportion. That many people die, that many kids die in car accidents every day. More die from swimming and drinking and driving. Those are the bigger risks, and we should help people focus on what’s really risky."
Oh, yes. That teen pheasant hunt in Connecticut? It went on.
Like ABC’s John Stossel, most Americans have teens and guns figured out right.
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