White House Joins Suit on Gun Cos.
By Anne Gearan
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, Dec. 7, 1999; 8:54 p.m. EST
WASHINGTON -- The White House is helping prepare a class-action suit against gun makers, alleging that guns and how they are marketed have contributed to violence in public housing projects, administration officials said Tuesday.
The class-action lawsuit by some or all of the nation's 3,100 local housing authorities would be patterned on suits filed against the industry by 29 cities and counties, the officials said.
Those suits claim that gun manufacturers have sold defective products or marketed them in ways that increase the likelihood that they will fall into the hands of criminals.
The new legal effort was made known Tuesday and was described by some officials as more of a threat aimed at bringing gun manufacturers to the negotiating table than an effort to take them to court.
The administration hopes the threat of a national lawsuit will force gun makers to agree to end practices such as marketing guns that are impervious to fingerprints.
A negotiated agreement would allow the administration and gun control advocates to claim a victory at a time when Congress has rejected writing into law new firearms restrictions wanted by President Clinton.
"The administration intends to work aggressively to ... try to work to reach a settlement with the industry," White House domestic policy adviser Bruce Reed said. "If settlement is not possible, then the public housing authorities are prepared to go forward with their suit."
Administration officials said the White House and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are helping prepare the suit even though the actual plaintiff would be independent local authorities that run federal housing programs.
The White House and HUD want gun makers to agree to a code of conduct that includes cracking down on disreputable gun dealers and making safer guns.
"The legal theory is the same as the cities have been pursuing - the bottom line is the gun manufacturers have not been properly supervising their distribution channels," and otherwise failing to promote safety, a HUD official said.
"It's the traditional liability theory that is applied to every other product - negligence and product liability," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official would not detail any previous outreach to gun makers but said new negotiations were planned.
"The administration and HUD is ready to sue, but our first priority is to change the practice of the industry. We think we should first sit down at the negotiating table," the HUD official said.
Some gun makers have declared bankruptcy in the wake of the suits by local governments and others have downsized their product lines and decreased advertising, according to a countersuit.
The suits have had mixed success in the courts. A judge dismissed Cincinnati's suit in October but another judge had allowed Atlanta's suit to proceed and ordered the industry to open its files.
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press