Appeals court reinstates gun lawsuit

By David Kravets
The Associated Press

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More than 30 states have laws exempting gun manufacturers and distributors from such suits. The House in April passed a bill to extend the prohibition on such suits nationwide and President Bush has said he would sign it. Senate Democrats have threatened to filibuster the proposal.

The 2-1 ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstates a lawsuit filed against gun manufacturers and distributors whose weapons were used by a white supremacist from Western Washington who shot a Filipino-American postal worker to death and wounded five people at a Jewish day-care center in a 1999 Los Angeles-area rampage.

A Los Angeles federal judge in 2001 had thrown out the case, filed by families of the victims against Georgia-based Glock, China North Industries, RSR Management and RSR Wholesale Guns Seattle. The case was filed under California negligence and wrongful-death statutes.

Survivors claimed several weapons companies produced, distributed and sold more firearms than legal purchasers could buy. In addition, they claimed the industry knowingly participated and facilitated an underground illegal gun market.

"I believe this is the first federal Court of Appeals decision to sustain a claim like this one," said Peter Nordberg, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

Christopher Renzulli, attorney for Glock and the RSR companies, said the gun Buford Furrow of Lacey, Thurston County, used to kill letter carrier Joseph Ileto was originally sold to the police department in Cosmopolis, Wash., by the RSR companies.

"How are we supposed to monitor a gun after we sell it to a law-enforcement agency?" Renzulli said.

According to court records, the police department sold the weapon to a gun shop in exchange for a different model. The shop sold it to a gun collector who is alleged to have sold it to Furrow — an ex-convict prohibited from purchasing weapons — at a gun show in Spokane.

Furrow is serving life in prison without parole.

Renzulli said he was considering asking an 11-judge panel of the appeals court to rehear the case.

In the decision reinstating the case, Judge Richard Paez wrote that Glock's marketing strategy creates a "supply of post-police guns that can be sold through unlicensed dealers without background checks to illegal buyers."

Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall dissented, saying the court was twisting the law to obtain a "just result" for the victims.

Since 1998, at least 33 municipalities, counties and states have sued gun makers, many claiming that manufacturers, through irresponsible marketing, allowed weapons to reach criminals. Just one of those suits has resulted in a manufacturer or distributor paying any damages.

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