Can cities sue gun makers?

• Author: Anders, Kelly

Following in the footsteps of successful tobacco litigation, cities are suing gun manufacturers. But many state legislatures are saying no.

When states sued the tobacco industry for the costs of smokers' illnesses, it sparked the idea for cities to sue gun manufacturers. But if many legislatures have their way, cities will be forced to leave the suing to the states.

Cities nationwide are seeking reimbursement for millions of dollars spent on police, medical and other city services in connection with criminal activity, unintentional shootings and teen suicides. Thus far, lawsuits have been introduced in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Miami and New Orleans. At least 41 other cities and the state of New York have announced that they are considering legal action.

Cities allege that manufacturers have failed to include safety devices to prevent children and other unauthorized users from firing guns.

The Miami lawsuit, like those filed in Atlanta and New Orleans, targets the way guns are manufactured rather than the way they're distributed. The suits claim gun manufacturers should do more to ensure that the weapons cannot be misused by criminals or children by including trigger locks and "smart gun" technologies that permit only an owner to fire them.

Chicago is suing the industry as a public nuisance, claiming that makers and suburban gun shops have knowingly marketed and sold weapons to criminals. The Chicago suit names 12 gun shops, 22 manufacturers and four distributors, and cites an undercover investigation where officers posed as gang members and bought 171 guns in a three-month period last year from shops in the city's suburbs. The suit alleges that employees helped buyers evade weapons laws.

Manufacturers maintain that their products are safe when used properly, and they bear no responsibility for unscrupulous dealers or for the actions of criminals or others who fail to use the guns as they were intended.

Cases against dealers have met with success more frequently than cases against manufacturers. In Kitchen vs. K-Mart Corp., for example, a Florida jury found a dealer liable for injuries caused when Deborah Kitchen's ex-boyfriend shot her. K-Mart bad ignored the man's apparent intoxication when it sold him the gun.

In other cases, however, juries have refused to find manufacturers liable for harm caused in criminal and accidental shootings. In Dix vs. Beretta U.S.A. Corp., a recent California case, a jury failed to find the maker at fault in...