This is sad, sad, sad. Criminals aren’t paying for their actions, the gun trade is. Like a recent case in Washington (that was lost by the plaintiffs, thank God), I wouldn’t be surprised if one day someone starts suing all registered gun owners for the crime rates. The article below is from the Seattle Times, today.Posted at 06:37 a.m. PST; Friday, December 3, 1999

Gun dealer to pay city, stop selling handguns

by J.R. Ross
The Associated Press
GARY, Ind. – Mayor Scott King knows the city’s lawsuit against the gun industry won’t solve Gary’s handgun problem.

But he said yesterday’s announcement that one gun dealer, Fetla’s Trading, had agreed to stop selling handguns and pay Gary $10,000 in exchange for being dropped from the suit is a good start. Gary has been the nation’s murder capital three times this decade, with more murders per capita than any other U.S. city.

“What it’s going to take in measure is the sort of responsibility that’s been exhibited by . . . the Fetlas of this world together with the city,” said King, whose nephew was gunned down with a handgun in June.

“Their sensitivity of what we in the city are trying to accomplish was remarkable.”

The settlement is believed to be the first in which a defendant in one of a series of lawsuits brought against the gun industry around the country has agreed to pay money.

King said Fetla’s will stop selling handguns once its current inventory is depleted.

Fetla’s was among 21 gun manufacturers and distributors, five local dealers and three trade associations the city sued in August. The lawsuit accuses the gun industry of selling weapons to criminals and others who aren’t entitled to own them.

In June, members of an undercover police task force posed as felons and minors and bought weapons at area dealers. Gary used that investigation to join New Orleans, Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Newark, N.J., and other cities in suing the industry.

In a statement, Fetla’s said illegal gun use was unforseeable by the industry. But it added, “Fetla’s believes in what the city is doing.”

Nearly 30 U.S. cities and counties have sued gunmakers, dealers and their trade organizations to try to force changes in the industry, according to the Washington-based Center to Prevent Handgun Violence.

Nancy Hwa, a spokeswoman for the center, said that gun dealers have settled in at least two other lawsuits but that Fetla’s was the first to pay money.

In the other cases, the defendants agreed to change their practices and open their records, Hwa said.

Copyright ? 1999 The Seattle Times Company