Negligence tossed out in gun suit

By Todd Lighty
Tribune Staff Writer
February 10, 2000

Dealing a blow to Mayor Richard Daley’s lawsuit against the firearms
industry, a Cook County judge Thursday dismissed a key element of the suit
that accused gun manufacturers and dealers of negligence.

Circuit Judge Stephen A. Schiller ruled from the bench that he saw no basis
in the law to support the city’s claim of “negligent entrustment” that the
industry is responsible for gun violence.

Negligent entrustment suits claim, in part, that someone negligently
entrusted something to someone else, such as a car to a drunken person or,
in the city’s argument, guns to suspected criminals.

Schiller, however, reserved ruling on whether guns have created a public
nuisance, the second argument in the city’s $433 million suit.

Lawyers representing the firearms industry said they hope Schiller’s
decision is a step toward total victory.

“The judge’s ruling was favorable, and we’re very confident that there will
be another favorable ruling regarding the public nuisance claim,” said James
Dorr, a lawyer for the gun manufacturers.

While city lawyers conceded Schiller’s decision hobbled their efforts to
hold the firearms industry responsible for gun violence, they said their
case still had merit.

Larry Rosenthal, the city’s point man on the suit, said he was heartened
that Schiller had not dismissed the public nuisance claim.

“It’s certainly a disappointment to us. We can’t deny that,” he said. “But
to us, the public nuisance claim is the most important.”

In the anti-gun suit, filed in November 1998 and championed by the mayor,
the city and county allege guns have created a public nuisance, threatening
residents’ health and safety and that gun manufacturers, like polluters,
should have to pay for the cleanup.

Mara Georges, the city’s corporation counsel, was in the courtroom Thursday
when Schiller made his ruling. “We are certainly disappointed by his
decision,” Georges said.

Schiller’s ruling continues a string of court victories for the firearms
industry in its ongoing battles with municipalities over who is responsible
for gun violence.

In December, judges in Florida and Connecticut dismissed similar lawsuits
against the firearms industry. As in Chicago, the mayors of Bridgeport,
Conn., and Miami-Dade County claimed negligence and public nuisance in their
suits.

And like Daley, those mayors said the industry was responsible for the flow
of illegal handguns into their areas and should be held accountable for the
costs of violence.

In Schiller’s courtroom Thursday, city and county lawyers argued that their
case should not be dismissed.

Rosenthal, the city’s deputy corporation counsel, said the firearms industry
has engaged in a scheme to fuel an underground market of firearms in
Chicago. Gun manufacturers, he said, design guns meant to appeal to
criminals, and the manufacturers, along with distributors and dealers, flood
that market with guns.

“There is a large underground gun market they knowingly endeavor to
exploit,” Rosenthal said. “Manufacturers know there is money to be made by
getting guns into the hands of criminals.”

But James Valentino Jr., a lawyer for Universal Firearms, said the city’s
crime statistics argue the alleged proliferation of guns have had the
opposite effect: Violent crime is down.

“Doesn’t that say that firearms and crime rates may (have) an inverse
relationship?” Valentino asked.

William Howard, a lawyer for seven of the suburban gun shops being sued,
said gun violence was not the fault of the highly regulated gun industry.

“The nuisance, if there is one, is caused by the actual misuse of a weapon,”
Howard told Schiller. “It is caused by the intentional conduct of a
criminal. Period.”