|
Lethargic Hooligan
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: hello kitty found my wallet at a big tent revival and returned it with all the cash missing
|
I guess the artile is refering to this:
Quote:
http://www.bradycampaign.org/press/release.php?release=439
Two NJ Police Officers Wounded in the Line of Duty Sue Companies Responsible for Arming the Shooter
Gun Suit Would Be Barred By Immunity Legislation Advancing In Congress
For Immediate Release:
11-14-2002 Contact Communications:
(202) 289-7319
Washington, D.C. -- Today, two New Jersey law enforcement officers who were shot and seriously wounded while on duty filed a lawsuit against the companies that put the gun in the hands of the criminal who shot them. Orange Police Detective David Lemongello and Officer Kenneth McGuire are seeking damages from a West Virginia pawnshop, Will's Jewelry and Loan, and gun manufacturer Sturm, Ruger. Also named as defendants are gun traffickers James Gray and Tammi Lea Songer, and the estate of the shooter, Shuntez Everett. The negligent behavior of the defendants enabled career criminal Everett to get the Ruger pistol that he used in a shootout with police. Detective Lemongello and Officer McGuire are represented by lawyers from the Brady Center and prominent West Virginia attorney Scott Segal of Charleston.
"Were it not for the negligence of these gun sellers, that gun would not have been in Shuntez Everett's hands," said Scott Segal.
"Gun manufacturers and gun dealers have known for years that gun trafficking and multiple sales of firearms supply the criminal gun market," said Jonathan Lowy, Senior Attorney with the Brady Center's Legal Action Project. "They have the ability to stop the flow of guns to criminals, yet they do nothing. They must be made to realize that their irresponsible conduct has very real consequences. In this case, the shooting of two police officers."
The filing of this lawsuit comes at a time when the National Rifle Association and the gun industry are pushing for federal legislation to grant the industry unprecendented immunity from liability to gun violence victims. Companion bills, H.R. 2037, sponsored by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), and S.2268, sponsored by Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) would bar most negligence suits against gun sellers, including the suit filed today by officers McGuire and Lenongello. The NRA has stated that enactment of the bill is its top legislative priority.
"I wonder if the Congressional supporters of this special interest legislation are prepared to explain to officers Lemongello and McGuire why they should not be allowed their day in court," said Mr. Lowy. "Gun manufacturers and distributors and their dealers could cease and desist making large volume sales to gun traffickers. They won't do it, because they profit from every gun sold to the criminal market. Giving immunity to irresponsible gun sellers is a travesty of justice - the gun industry should not get a 'free pass' for negligent behavior and innocent victims of gun violence do not deserve to bear the costs created by the gun industry's irresponsible actions."
On January 12, 2001, Shuntez Everett shot Detective Lemongello and Officer McGuire with a 9-mm semiautomatic Ruger handgun, after being approached during undercover surveillance of a gas station that had been robbed repeatedly. Both officers survived but suffered serious debilitating injuries. Everett was killed during the shootings.
Investigation into the source of the gun revealed that the Ruger was one of several guns purchased by James Gray, another convicted felon, and his accomplice, Tammi Lea Songer. As convicted felons, both Everett and Gray were prohibited from purchasing guns, and New Jersey's strict permitting system prevented Gray from buying firearms from dealers within the state. Gray had Songer, a West Virginia resident with no criminal record, buy guns on his behalf from the Charleston, WV pawnshop. Such purchases are known as "straw" purchases. On multiple occasions, Gray and Songer purchased guns from the same West Virginia pawnshop, Will's Jewelry and Loan, which Gray then resold on the black market to other criminals like Everett. In one month, Gray and Songer bought 22 guns in three visits to Will's.
On July 20, 2000, Gray picked out 12 guns for Songer to buy, including the Ruger, and gave Songer cash to pay for them. Although Will's personnel were sufficiently concerned about the gun purchases that they notified the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, they did so only after they completed the transaction -- and profits for Will's and for Sturm, Ruger were ensured. Six months later, the Ruger was used by Everett to shoot Lemongello and McGuire.
The suit charges gun dealer Will's with negligence for consummating a large-volume straw sale of guns obviously headed for the illegal market. The suit further charges gun manufacturer Sturm, Ruger with negligence for its failure to enforce a code of conduct that would require its dealers to spot and prevent straw sales and that would prevent its dealers from engaging in large-volume sales.
"The gun lobby claims that criminals will always get guns on the 'black market' as if the black market is a street corner where these gun magically appear," said Lowy. "We know how guns get onto the black market -- through the complicity of dealers and gun manufacturers who make it easy for gun traffickers to buy firearms. It's about time that gun companies stop putting profits ahead of public safety."
Since 1989, the Legal Action Project of the Brady Center, a gun violence prevention organization chaired by Sarah Brady, has pioneered innovative theories of gun industry liability against gun manufacturers and sellers. These theories have been used in the past to bring claims on behalf of individual victims of gun violence and are now being used by the cities and counties suing the gun industry. The aim of all of these lawsuits is to compensate victims while encouraging the gun industry to change its irresponsible business practices that contribute to the shameful level of gun violence in this country.
|
Quote:
http://www.bradycampaign.org/press/release.php?release=566
COURT APPROVES LANDMARK $1 MILLION SETTLEMENT
AGAINST GUN DEALER IN ATTACK ON POLICE OFFICERS
For Immediate Release:
06-23-2004 Contact Communications:
(202) 289-7319
Settlement is the first ever against a gun dealer
for supplying guns to the criminal market
In a landmark lawsuit, a West Virginia court has approved a settlement requiring a gun dealer to pay $1 million in damages to two former Orange, New Jersey police officers who were shot and almost killed by an armed robber with a gun the dealer supplied to a criminal gun trafficker.
The case would have been ended with no recovery by the police officers if Congress had approved National Rifle Association-supported legislation granting sweeping special legal protections to gun sellers - legislation that had passed the U.S. House of Representatives, but was defeated in the U.S. Senate in March. Officers Kenneth McGuire and David Lemongello had their police careers ended by a January 2001 shootout. The case is the first in the nation in which a gun dealer has paid damages for negligently supplying guns to a gun trafficker who in turn sold them into the illegal market.
"This landmark settlement sends a loud and clear message to the gun industry that gun sellers will pay a high price if they act irresponsibly and sell guns into the illegal market," said Dennis Henigan, Director of the Legal Action Project at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and co-counsel for the plaintiffs. "The era when gun dealers could supply the criminal 'iron pipeline,' with no consequences, is over."
"This settlement will discourage reckless sales which all too often wind up hurting the men and women in blue who struggle everyday to protect us," said Scott Segal of the Segal Law Firm, co-counsel to the plaintiffs.
The suit, before Judge Irene Berger of the Kanawha County Circuit Court, charged Will Jewelry & Loan of Charleston, West Virginia with negligence and creating a public nuisance for selling 12 handguns in one purchase to a "straw purchaser," Tammi Lea Songer, who purchased the guns for trafficker James Gray. Gray then sold the handguns on the black market. One was used by a career criminal to shoot Officers Lemongello and McGuire on January 12, 2001. Judge Berger approved the settlement this morning.
The proponents of legal immunity for the gun industry argued that gun sellers need to be protected from "frivolous" lawsuits. The size of the settlement in this case should dismiss any suggestion that the case was frivolous.
"If the gun lobby's immunity legislation had passed, justice would have been denied these brave police officers, and it would be business as usual for reckless gun dealers," Henigan said. "Will Senator Larry Craig, and the National Rifle Association's other partisans in Congress, now tell these officers that their lawsuit was frivolous?"
The McGuire-Lemongello case was discussed extensively during Congressional debate on the bill, S.1805, that would have granted sweeping immunity from civil suits to gun manufacturers and dealers, including such dealers as Bull's Eye Shooter Supply, the dealer that "lost" the assault rifle used by the DC area snipers in their October 2002 rampage. The officers worked extensively against the legislation, meeting with Senators and Congressional staff, and appearing in advertisements urging defeat of the bill. Senator Larry Craig (R-Id), the bill's primary Senate sponsor, urged defeat of his own bill after opponents passed amendments renewing the federal assault weapons ban, which is scheduled to expire in September, and closing the loophole allowing sales of guns at gun shows without background checks. The final vote against passage was 90-8.
The gun trafficker, Gray, was a convicted felon prohibited from purchasing guns. He paid Songer, who had no criminal record, to buy guns on his behalf. Songer paid the pawnshop $4,000 in cash for the purchase of the twelve handguns. Gray and Songer were in the pawnshop together, with Gray pointing out the guns he wanted to a store employee and Songer completing the paperwork for the Brady background check. Songer testified that she and Gray were both high on drugs while they were in the store. Six months later, one of the guns was used to shoot the officers.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has long regarded "multiple sales" of guns as an indicator of gun trafficking. In 2002, handguns sold in multiple sales accounted for 20 percent of all guns traced to crime. Will's is among the top 1% of gun dealers nationwide in the number of guns it has sold that have been traced to crime.
After the lawsuit was brought, Will Jewelry & Loan instituted a policy under which it would sell only one handgun per month to a customer. Since the suit, at least two other West Virginia gun stores have instituted similar policies to curb gun trafficking.
The plaintiffs' case against the gun's distributor, Accusport, and the manufacturer, Sturm, Ruger, remains pending before the court.
Since 1989, the Brady Center's Legal Action Project has pioneered innovative legal theories of liability against gun manufacturers and sellers in an effort to reform the industry. The Project provides free legal representation to victims of gun violence as well as to the cities and counties that have filed lawsuits against gun industry defendants. Through its groundbreaking legal work, the Project's goal is to compel the gun industry to change irresponsible business practices that contribute to the high level of gun violence in the United States. For more information about this lawsuit, other litigation against the gun industry, and efforts to reform the gun industry, visit the Legal Action Project's website at www.gunlawsuits.org.
|
You will note in the first article the suit included Strum, Ruger. No mention of them is included in the second article.
The legislation the NRA was advancing was similar in nature to legislation that was passed proctecing the small aircraft aviation industry. In that industries case, frivolous lawsuits essentially forced a number of manufacturers to shut their doors.
I have not looked at the proposed legislation, but i would be very suprised if it protected a gun store owner who knowingly sold firearms to a staw purchaser or criminal. I do imagine that proving knowledge or intent would be part of the public burden.
__________________
donkey, donkey, walk a little faster
|
07-01-2004, 12:29 PM
