The civil justice system is often one of the only places where
wrongdoers can be challenged to do right the right thing. Which is
exactly what New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been trying to do
through the City of New York. In 2006, the city sued 27 gun dealers
claiming that the way they were selling guns allowed those guns to end
up in the hands of criminals. According to the ATF, 57% of all crime
guns can be traced back to only 1% gun 
dealers. And with 90% of all
crime guns coming into the city from out of state, NYC took a look at
those 1% of dealers and filed a civil action against them, asking that
they "stop doing that."
To date, most of the dealers have settled their cases,
which, according to the terms of the settlement require outside
oversight of the stores' sales. This monitoring has greatly reduced
the flow of illegal guns into the city. According to an independent
analysis of the sales from seven of the dealers who have already
settled, "the probability that guns sold by the defendant dealers would
be recovered by police in the City within one year of retail sale
decreased 75 percent from their pre-sting levels."
Yesterday, the case involving one of the defendants, Adventure Outdoors, a
Georgia gun shop, which had ranked 82nd out of the 120 worst crime gun
retailers in the country in a 2004 study by the Americans for Gun
Safety Foundation,
was expected to go to trial. Instead, the store's owner backed out of
his federal trial, although he is appealing his case. Two more cases are set to go to trial in September.
These cases have been part of a bigger battle to keep illegal guns off
the street of New York City through the use of civil lawsuits. And it
has been successful. In a statement yesterday Mayor Michael Bloomberg
said:
"Today…paves the way for the court to appoint a monitor of Adventure Outdoors. We have always said that we have no interest in bankrupting gun dealers, only in ensuring that they follow federal laws. Clearly, our strategy of enlisting court-appointed monitors has been working, and today we take another step toward keeping illegal guns out of the hands of criminals."
For more information on New York City's civil lawsuit against gun dealers click here, here and here
Comments