Another portion of the municipal gun-suit campaign is ending with a whimper, not a bang: San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s office has announced a tentative settlement of litigation by California local governments against several gun dealers and distributors. If the deal is approved by the 12 governments and a San Diego judge, the dealers and distributors would change certain business practices and pay the plaintiff governments $70,000 — far less than the $2 million the governments are estimated to have racked up thus far in legal expenses, even though the suits have been touted in the past as a moneymaking proposition. “Earlier this year, San Diego Superior Court Judge Vincent DiFiglia granted summary judgment in favor of about 20 manufacturers and trade associations, including big-name companies such as Beretta and Smith & Wesson, Clements said. The plaintiff jurisdictions have appealed that decision. But the five dealers and distributors were to face a trial.”

“The city of San Francisco’s lawsuit against the industry has been a complete failure,” said Lawrence Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, one of the defendants that won a summary judgment earlier this year. As for the claimed groundbreaking nature of the changes in distribution practices, Chuck Michel of the California Rifle and Pistol Association says that “’90 percent of what they got the defendants to agree to, the defendants were already doing,’ an assertion Herrera vehemently disputes. ‘As far as the other 10 percent of the changes they managed to extort out of these guys, they could have asked,’ Michel added.” (Pam Smith, “S.F. Strikes Tentative Settlement in Gun Lawsuit”, The Recorder, Aug. 26). The agreed-on changes in business practices go beyond anything required by federal or state law, and include agreements to refrain from selling at gun shows. “‘We really didn’t give up anything,’ Cucchiara [president Tony Cucchiara of Traders Sports in San Leandro] said of the settlement. ‘The fact is we’ve always been doing much more than what the law requires.'” Herrera, for his part, insists the dealers’ willingness to settle the suit proves it was not frivolous (Ivan Delventhal, “Suit restricts East Bay gun dealer”, Alameda Times-Star, Aug. 23).

Filed under: guns, San Diego