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IL: Lawsuit against gun manufacturer for shooting
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Brady Center: Lawsuit on Behalf of Victims of Racist Shootings Allowed to Proceed
4/11/2002
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Press Release:
Contact:
Nancy Hwa or Amy Stilwell
Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence
1225 Eye Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 289-7319
www.bradycenter.org
Washington, DC - Today (Wednesday), the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence hailed the decision by Judge Michael Hogan of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, allowing a lawsuit to proceed against the gun manufacturer, the gun distributor, and the gun dealer that armed Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, a follower of the white supremacist World Church of the Creator, enabling him to carry out his July 1999 shooting rampage in which he shot 11 people in Illinois and Indiana. The Legal Action Project of the Brady Center represents victims of the racist shooting spree in their lawsuit. The defendants moved for summary dismissal of the case. The judge allowed a claim for creating a public nuisance to go forward against all defendants, as well as a claim for making a negligent sale against the dealer.
"The court's decision makes clear that those who make and sell guns are not exempt from the rules and standards of responsibility that apply to every other industry in this country," said Allen Rostron, an attorney for the Legal Action Project who argued against dismissal. "They can be held accountable when they do business in unnecessarily and unreasonably dangerous ways that have tragic results."
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three injured survivors of the shootings, and the families of Korean exchange student Won-Joon Yoon and former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong, who were killed. The suit alleges civil claims against:
Donald Fiessinger, who pled guilty to violating federal law by operating an illegal, unlicensed gun trafficking business. Fiessinger bought large quantities of guns and resold them, no questions asked, through classified ads in a local newspaper. He sold Smith the Bryco .380 pistol used in the shooting spree, after Smith unsuccessfully tried to buy a gun from a licensed dealer and failed the Brady background check.
Old Prairie Trading Post and its proprietor Robert Hayes, who sold Fiessinger more than 70 guns, including 40 Bryco .380 pistols. For some of the sales, Old Prairie did not conduct a background check, and for most of the others, it did not impose the three-day waiting period for purchase of a handgun required by Illinois law. Old Prairie and Fiessinger also carefully timed the sale of the guns to circumvent a federal law requiring a special notice to be sent to law enforcement when a customer purchases two or more handguns within a 5 business-day period. To avoid that notice being sent, they spread out the sales to have only one per week, week after week after week. During one stretch, for example, Old Prairie sold Fiessinger a gun every Monday for 33 consecutive weeks, skipping only one week when Monday was a national holiday. Hayes pled guilty to a federal criminal charge of knowingly making an illegal gun sale to Fiessinger.
Bryco Arms and its exclusive national distributor B.L. Jennings, Inc., who shipped more than 120 "Saturday Night Special" pistols to Old Prairie, without knowing anything or asking any questions about the business except that it had a gun license and money to spend, and without taking any of responsible measures such as training, screening, or supervising the dealer that would have uncovered the corruption and illegal practices going on within their distribution system.
"This is a textbook case of how decisions by gun makers and sellers can lead directly to violence," said Mr. Rostron. "We are long past the day when gun manufacturers and dealers can wash their hands of responsibility for gun violence because somebody else pulled the trigger. For too long the costs of gun industry and dealer misconduct have been born by the victims and by the community, while the industry pays nothing. This case seeks to shift the costs onto the companies and individuals whose conduct ensured that Benjamin Smith would have ready access to the tools of violence."
The Brady Center's co-counsel for this suit are Sarah Wolff and Michael Richman of the Sachnoff & Weaver law firm. Jin Han of Jin Han & Associates is co-counsel for the estate of Won-Joon Yoon.
http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/alerts/reader/0,2061,550053,00.html
Date of Release: April 10, 2002
"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
4/11/2002
Subscribe
Press Release:
Contact:
Nancy Hwa or Amy Stilwell
Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence
1225 Eye Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 289-7319
www.bradycenter.org
Washington, DC - Today (Wednesday), the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence hailed the decision by Judge Michael Hogan of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, allowing a lawsuit to proceed against the gun manufacturer, the gun distributor, and the gun dealer that armed Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, a follower of the white supremacist World Church of the Creator, enabling him to carry out his July 1999 shooting rampage in which he shot 11 people in Illinois and Indiana. The Legal Action Project of the Brady Center represents victims of the racist shooting spree in their lawsuit. The defendants moved for summary dismissal of the case. The judge allowed a claim for creating a public nuisance to go forward against all defendants, as well as a claim for making a negligent sale against the dealer.
"The court's decision makes clear that those who make and sell guns are not exempt from the rules and standards of responsibility that apply to every other industry in this country," said Allen Rostron, an attorney for the Legal Action Project who argued against dismissal. "They can be held accountable when they do business in unnecessarily and unreasonably dangerous ways that have tragic results."
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three injured survivors of the shootings, and the families of Korean exchange student Won-Joon Yoon and former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong, who were killed. The suit alleges civil claims against:
Donald Fiessinger, who pled guilty to violating federal law by operating an illegal, unlicensed gun trafficking business. Fiessinger bought large quantities of guns and resold them, no questions asked, through classified ads in a local newspaper. He sold Smith the Bryco .380 pistol used in the shooting spree, after Smith unsuccessfully tried to buy a gun from a licensed dealer and failed the Brady background check.
Old Prairie Trading Post and its proprietor Robert Hayes, who sold Fiessinger more than 70 guns, including 40 Bryco .380 pistols. For some of the sales, Old Prairie did not conduct a background check, and for most of the others, it did not impose the three-day waiting period for purchase of a handgun required by Illinois law. Old Prairie and Fiessinger also carefully timed the sale of the guns to circumvent a federal law requiring a special notice to be sent to law enforcement when a customer purchases two or more handguns within a 5 business-day period. To avoid that notice being sent, they spread out the sales to have only one per week, week after week after week. During one stretch, for example, Old Prairie sold Fiessinger a gun every Monday for 33 consecutive weeks, skipping only one week when Monday was a national holiday. Hayes pled guilty to a federal criminal charge of knowingly making an illegal gun sale to Fiessinger.
Bryco Arms and its exclusive national distributor B.L. Jennings, Inc., who shipped more than 120 "Saturday Night Special" pistols to Old Prairie, without knowing anything or asking any questions about the business except that it had a gun license and money to spend, and without taking any of responsible measures such as training, screening, or supervising the dealer that would have uncovered the corruption and illegal practices going on within their distribution system.
"This is a textbook case of how decisions by gun makers and sellers can lead directly to violence," said Mr. Rostron. "We are long past the day when gun manufacturers and dealers can wash their hands of responsibility for gun violence because somebody else pulled the trigger. For too long the costs of gun industry and dealer misconduct have been born by the victims and by the community, while the industry pays nothing. This case seeks to shift the costs onto the companies and individuals whose conduct ensured that Benjamin Smith would have ready access to the tools of violence."
The Brady Center's co-counsel for this suit are Sarah Wolff and Michael Richman of the Sachnoff & Weaver law firm. Jin Han of Jin Han & Associates is co-counsel for the estate of Won-Joon Yoon.
http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/alerts/reader/0,2061,550053,00.html
Date of Release: April 10, 2002
"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
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