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California's Governor Signs Series of Anti-Gun Mea
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
California's Governor Signs Series of Anti-Gun Measures
By JOHN M. BRODER
OS ANGELES, Sept. 25 - Gov. Gray Davis signed a series of gun measures today, including a bill to repeal the special immunity from liability suits granted to the firearms industry nearly 20 years ago.
California, which was one of the first states to give weapons makers protection from lawsuits, now becomes the first state to lift that immunity. In the last five years, more than two dozen states have granted the gun industry immunity from suits filed by cities and counties seeking damages to cover the costs of combating gun violence.
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Gun-control advocates who pushed the California bills hailed today's action as a significant victory over the well-financed gun lobby.
"This is a legal earthquake for irresponsible gun manufacturers," said Luis Tolley of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "They will no longer be able to hide from the courts and escape legal accountability when they engage in dangerous and irresponsible conduct that hurts and kills people."
California is clearly bucking a trend in which 29 states have acted to throttle a spate of government lawsuits against gun makers. A bill before Congress to grant the industry blanket immunity from such suits has 228 sponsors in the House and 41 in the Senate, industry officials say.
Governor Davis urged Congress to reject those bills as bad policy and an unwarranted shield for irresponsible gun makers and sellers.
"These federal bills are intended to pre-empt laws like the ones I'm signing today and to take us right back to square one," Mr. Davis said. "They ensure that the gun manufacturers remain accountable to no one."
A lawyer for gun manufacturers said the California legislation would result in a torrent of litigation intended to harass and bankrupt the industry.
"The California Legislature has opened a Pandora's box, and courts in California will now be flooded with suits designed to hold manufacturers of legal, highly regulated nondefective products responsible for criminal shootings," said Lawrence G. Keane, general counsel of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute, the trade group for the gun industry.
Twelve California cities and counties have joined in a lawsuit against the gun industry seeking to recover the costs of investigating gun crimes and treating the victims of gun violence. Trial is scheduled for April.
Mr. Davis signed several other gun-related bills today. One gives city attorneys access to federal gun-sales records. Another authorizes the Department of Justice to test handgun models each year to determine whether they meet state safety standards. A third prohibits the sale of safety locks that are not approved in the state and a fourth requires arms makers to obtain certification from the Department of Justice that the recipient is an authorized dealer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/26/national/26CALI.html?ex=1033704000&en=04da9711a9724278&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA1
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By JOHN M. BRODER
OS ANGELES, Sept. 25 - Gov. Gray Davis signed a series of gun measures today, including a bill to repeal the special immunity from liability suits granted to the firearms industry nearly 20 years ago.
California, which was one of the first states to give weapons makers protection from lawsuits, now becomes the first state to lift that immunity. In the last five years, more than two dozen states have granted the gun industry immunity from suits filed by cities and counties seeking damages to cover the costs of combating gun violence.
Advertisement
Gun-control advocates who pushed the California bills hailed today's action as a significant victory over the well-financed gun lobby.
"This is a legal earthquake for irresponsible gun manufacturers," said Luis Tolley of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "They will no longer be able to hide from the courts and escape legal accountability when they engage in dangerous and irresponsible conduct that hurts and kills people."
California is clearly bucking a trend in which 29 states have acted to throttle a spate of government lawsuits against gun makers. A bill before Congress to grant the industry blanket immunity from such suits has 228 sponsors in the House and 41 in the Senate, industry officials say.
Governor Davis urged Congress to reject those bills as bad policy and an unwarranted shield for irresponsible gun makers and sellers.
"These federal bills are intended to pre-empt laws like the ones I'm signing today and to take us right back to square one," Mr. Davis said. "They ensure that the gun manufacturers remain accountable to no one."
A lawyer for gun manufacturers said the California legislation would result in a torrent of litigation intended to harass and bankrupt the industry.
"The California Legislature has opened a Pandora's box, and courts in California will now be flooded with suits designed to hold manufacturers of legal, highly regulated nondefective products responsible for criminal shootings," said Lawrence G. Keane, general counsel of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute, the trade group for the gun industry.
Twelve California cities and counties have joined in a lawsuit against the gun industry seeking to recover the costs of investigating gun crimes and treating the victims of gun violence. Trial is scheduled for April.
Mr. Davis signed several other gun-related bills today. One gives city attorneys access to federal gun-sales records. Another authorizes the Department of Justice to test handgun models each year to determine whether they meet state safety standards. A third prohibits the sale of safety locks that are not approved in the state and a fourth requires arms makers to obtain certification from the Department of Justice that the recipient is an authorized dealer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/26/national/26CALI.html?ex=1033704000&en=04da9711a9724278&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA1
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878