The lawsuit was filed in state district court, in a joint effort between the City of New Orleans and the Center to Prevent Hangun Violence. It centered around the Louisiana Products Liability Act, claiming that gun manufacturers purposely avoided new technologies that could have made their products safer. Until the lawsuit, gun manufacturers had enjoyed exemption from product liability laws.
The safety modifications in question included child-safety locks and various "personalization" methods. A so-called "personalized gun" can only be fired by the gun's owner, who is identified via palm print or combination-lock code.
The plaintiffs claimed that such personalization technology did indeed exist over the past couple decades, but had been intentionally ignored by gun manufacturers. Over 30 patents for personalized guns have been issued since 1976, but none were employed by the defendants. Danny Abell, an attorney representing New Orleans, stated, "If there is a state-of-the-art design safety device which can make a product safer, and the industry has knowledge of that safety device, their failure to include that safety device makes them liable for the damage that results from that failure."
The legal proceedings were stalled for months by the Louisiana state legislature's ban of cities' lawsuits against gun manufacturers. On February 28, 2000, though, a state court declared the ban unconstitutional.
By the middle of March, gun manufactureres began to seek out-of-court
settlements, in which they promised to utilize the safety devices that
they had failed to include in the past.
| 1994 | Marc H. Morial becomes mayor of New Orleans. |
| October 30, 1998 | New Orleans files its lawsuit. |
| November 1998 | New Orleans 5-year-old loses eye to bullet. |
| November 12, 1998 | In Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley announces a suit against 12 gun shops in the Chicago suburbs, 22 gun manufacturers and four gun distributors. The $433 million lawsuit is the culmination of a three-month investigation in which Chicago police officers posed as criminals and purchased guns from stores whose employees were willing to help them evade gun laws. |
| January 27, 1999 | Miami-Dade County, Florida and Bridgeport, Connecticut file suits against gun companies. |
| January 29, 1999 | New Orleans comes under fire when the public learns that the city engages in "gun swapping." Police traded seized weapons to Glock Inc., a gun manufacturer, in exchange for new weapons. Critics claim that New Orleans is potentially putting the confiscated firearms back into the hands of criminals. |
| April 1999 | Robert, LA 3-year-old dies after mishandling a gun he found in the car. |
| April 1999 | New Orleans 17-year-old dies when accidently shot by his 15-year-old friend. |
| May 1999 | LePlace 1-year-old is shot in the stomach as sitter handles revolver. |
| July 1999 | Metairie, LA friends watched 17-year-old kill himself playing with "unloaded" gun. |
| February 28, 2000 | Louisiana Civil District Judge Lloyd Medley throws out state laws that had barred cities from filing lawsuits against gun manufacturers. |
| March 17, 2000 | Under the threat of legal action from 30 different state and local governments, the nation's top gun maker agrees to change its marketing, manufacturing and design practices in order to avoid potentially crippling legal fees. (See Smith & Wesson's statement regarding the agreement.) |
Louisiana Civil District Judge Lloyd Medley
Danny Abell, an attorney representing New Orleans
Some of the gun manufacturers sued by the city of New Orleans:
Smith and Wesson
Sturm Ruger
Beretta U.S.A.
Colt
Glock
Loroin
Bryco
Jennings and Navegar
U.S. Conference of Mayors Gun Violence Task Force (chair Edward Rendell)
American Shooting Sports Council Inc. (spokesman Jack Adkins; ex-head Richard Feldman)
National Shooting Sports Foundation
Center to Prevent Handgun Violence (spokesman Dennis Henigan)
The "Castano Group," a group of lawyers who worked on tobacco litigation,
who represented many cities in the gun-control suits.
-Twenty-eight cities and organizations have
filed lawsuits against the gun industry.
-United Parcel Service and Federal Express
announced two weeks ago they would no longer ship handguns.
-New Jersey Governor Christine Whitman signed
a bill banning the sale of all handguns sold without child safety locks.
-The Boston Police Department announced it
would require safety-clips to be used in all police sidearms.
-Colt developed a prototype with smart gun
technology that will be on the market soon.
-Smith and Wesson announced it would require
all retailers to sign agreements requiring salesmen to advise customers
on gun safety.
-The American Spinal Injury Association joined
the NAACP in their suit against gun-makers.
-President Clinton sponsored a $15 million
gun buy-back program.
-A Mother's Day March for Gun Safety of one
million mothers is being planned for Mothers' Day 2000.