Gun control groups and transnational bureaucracies sympathetic to their cause imagined that it would be easy work to float new treaties and other initiatives restricting gun sales and ownership. Then 64 percent of Brazilians voted against a gun ban, and an unwelcome truth began to dawn on them: talk of individual rights is not just something for Americans. (Joshua Kurlantzick, “Idea Lab: Global Gun Rights?”, New York Times Magazine, Sept. 17).
Posts Tagged ‘guns’
Bloomberg’s gun lawsuits
They’re “beginning to look like a fiasco”, opines David Hardy (Aug. 31):
A second dealer has filed a counter-suit in his home state, a NY dealer they charged with criminal offenses had to be let off with disorderly conduct (in most states, about a minor a misdemeanor as they have), they seized guns from that dealer but had to return them, the city has settled with two on terms that have them audited by a special master (whom the city has to pay)… oh, and a third dealer now says he’s going to sue.
More details: Bradley Hope, “Gun Dealer Hits Bloomberg on Sting Operation”, New York Sun, Aug. 31.
American Hunters and Shooters Association
The New Republic, like the Washington Monthly before it, is hyping this newly hatched groupuscule which aims to woo gun owners into an anti-NRA coalition. Trouble is, it’s a bit of an uphill slog convincing people you’re all for private gun ownership when your executive director played an active role on the plaintiff’s side in the lawsuit campaign against the firearms industry (see Jun. 29). (Michael Blanding, “Gun crazy”, The New Republic, Sept. 4). Cam Edwards has the details (Aug. 30).
From anti-gun litigation to hunter advocacy?
It seems Robert Ricker, active as an expert witness on the plaintiff’s side in lawsuits against the firearms industry, has now reinvented himself as a “sportsmen’s advocate”. David Hardy, at Arms and the Law, begs to differ with the notion that Ricker is a former “chief lobbyist for the NRA” [National Rifle Association]. (Jun. 25; see Phil Bloom, “New group defies NRA, Brady outfit on gun issues”, Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Jun. 25). At Washington Monthly, Christina Larson is promoting Ricker’s activities, but has met with some skepticism from commenters (Jun. 18 and Jun. 20).
AG candidates and their lawsuits: Dustin McDaniel
First in a series.
In 1998, two boys, Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, stole guns from a locked cabinet and engaged in a school shooting at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, that killed five people. The boys were eventually convicted of capital murder. 2006 Democratic nominee for Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, representing the families of the victims, sued the gun manufacturers. (Kenneth Heard, “Public defenders agency to pay for Jonesboro shooters civil case”, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 27, 1999). A judge threw out the suit, but the defendants had to spend money to defend themselves, part of a trial attorney campaign against gun manufacturers. (Kenneth Heard, “Gun maker, grandfather dropped from school shooting suit”, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 10, 2000). The suit was further controversial because a judge ordered taxpayers to pick up the cost of defending the civil lawsuit against the two shooters.
(Know of other trial lawyers, Republican or Democrat, with appalling suits running for office this November? E-mail me.)
NYC anti-gun suits, cont’d
NYC sues out-of-state gun dealers
Bloomberg’s crew says the city carried out “sting” operations that proved dealers in Pennsylvania, South Carolina and elsewhere were selling to “straw purchasers” in violation of federal law. (Diane Cardwell, “New York City Sues 15 Gun Dealers in 5 States, Charging Illegal Sales”, New York Times, May 16). David Hardy at Arms and the Law (May 15) says that even if the city can prove such allegations, “I still see major barriers in terms of (a) duty (b) causation and (c) damages. Not to mention (d), standing. I mean — if you can prove a dealer on a certain day was willing to make a strawman sale, does that prove he ever did so in the past? How many times? What crimes were caused or not caused?”
Burden of Proof
In a nationally-publicized case, an argument over a Detroit pool game resulted in one of the players pulling a gun and shooting the other in the head; Keith Bender Jr. died of his injuries a week later. Unfortunately for the shooter, Bender was a cousin of the bar’s bouncer, Mario Etheridge, who pulled his own gun, and shot the shooter three times, allegedly in an attempt to protect his cousin’s life. The shooter, rap star “Proof,” known best for being the friend of a more famous rap star, litigation-victim Eminem, was dead on arrival at the hospital. Prosecutors have not decided whether to charge Etheridge with murder, since Michigan law allows deadly force in the defense of another. But they have charged Etheridge with a felony count of “discharging a firearm inside a building.” (Josh Grossberg, “Alleged Proof Victim Dies”, E!Online, Apr. 18).
John Lott sues Steven Levitt for libel
Not the soundest means of establishing academic credibility or resolving academic disagreements. (Michael Higgins, “Best-seller leads scholar to file lawsuit”, Chicago Tribune, Apr. 11) (h/t Slim). (Full disclosure: Lott was a former colleague of mine at AEI, and once gave me a ride home.)
Update, via Bill Barth, here is the registration-free Bloomberg account by Kevin Orland. The case is Lott v. Levitt, 06-CV-2007 (N.D. Ill.) (Castillo, J.).
Second update: we have a copy of the complaint. See after the jump.
Fla.: “NRA finds itself on losing side of gun-control bill”
Maybe because this time they’re wrong. Actually, the Miami Herald’s headline is misleading, since the bill has little or nothing to do with gun control as conventionally understood: it “would expose businesses to criminal penalties if they ban workers from having guns in their cars parked in employee lots.” (Mary Ellen Klas, Miami Herald, Apr. 5).