Caeca Invidia Es
Staff Alumnus
From the Salt Lake Tribune Tuesday DEC. 21 1999
A state legislator wants Utah to keep its hands clean of lawsuits seeking to hold firearms manufacturers liable for gun violence.
State Rep. Matthew Throckmorton is drafting a bill to block any state agencies or local governments from joining the spate of recent lawsuits that blame gun companies for the financial and human havoc linked to their products.
"[The lawsuits are] a roundabout way of trying to shut down gun manufacturers," said the Springville Republican, who is preparing the bill for the 2000 Legislature, which begins next month. "We're not interested in participating."
New Orleans and Chicago have led 28 cities in launching gun-industry lawsuits. So far none is in a Utah court. But two Salt Lake City lawyers, Don Winder and Dick Burbidge, are part of the national legal team pursuing the cases.
The National Center to Prevent Handgun Violence says 10,369 people were murdered with firearms in the United States in 1997 -- four of every five with a handgun.
The lawsuits want to force the $2 billion firearms industry to do everything it can to reduce firearm deaths. They are modeled after the tobacco industry lawsuits that led to a $206 billion national settlement last year, but Throckmorton said he does not want Utah cities to tag along on this litigation as it did with tobacco.
Opponents of the tobacco industry said their lawsuits were necessary because lawmakers weren't acting to stop industry abuses.
Throckmorton sees the gun industry suits differently. He said gun companies should be sued only if their products malfunction, not for political purposes.
Two Utah companies have been named in at least some of the lawsuits outside the state. Browning, a Mountain Green manufacturer famed for its rifles and shotguns, has been named as a defendant in 14 cases. Another defendant is Arms Technology Inc., a Salt Lake City company that makes .22-caliber pistols for Browning that are marketed primarily for target shooting.
Throckmorton said he has not begun to solicit support for his bill, but has gotten a positive reaction about the concept from a few other lawmakers.
"This [lawsuit preemption] has been done in a few other states, and I feel strongly it should be done here," he said.
The gun-industry suits say dealers can do better in keeping guns from people with a history of violence or mental illness. Manufacturers can update their products to make them safer and less attractive for misuse by children and criminals, the lawsuits say. The mayhem caused by gun violence costs the nation as much as $126 billion a year.
Utah also has suffered the effects of gun violence.
More than half of the 207 people killed by guns in Utah in 1997 committed suicide, including 24 children. And health statistics show four children are injured by firearms for every one killed by them. Based on Utah's 1,476 violent firearm crimes and using a middle-range estimate of $2,300 per crime, the public's cost for gun crime in Utah was about $3.4 million that year.
Salt Lake City Mayor-elect Rocky Anderson suggested the target of Throckmorton's bill is misplaced. The Democrat said lawmakers have written the gun laws, so they -- not gunmakers -- should be held accountable for the laws' ineffectiveness.
"Whenever I have been asked [about filing a gun-industry lawsuit] I've said I'm not inclined to do that," Anderson said.
Burbridge, one of the Utah attorneys handling the gun-industry suits, was critical of state legislatures that have moved to block the liability lawsuits.
"What business does the [Utah] Legislature have in determining what the cities should do in confronting the epidemic of violence they face?" he said. "It's an improper intervention on the part of the Legislature on the functions of the judicial branch, not to mention the function of the municipalities."
Senate President Lane Beattie declined to comment directly on a bill he has not seen and the Legislature's lawyers have not reviewed. However, he noted that legislators step lightly when it comes to liability lawsuits.
"It certainly presents some constitutional issues," he said.
------------------
Like an animal locked up in a cage, through my inheritance I was born to rage.
A state legislator wants Utah to keep its hands clean of lawsuits seeking to hold firearms manufacturers liable for gun violence.
State Rep. Matthew Throckmorton is drafting a bill to block any state agencies or local governments from joining the spate of recent lawsuits that blame gun companies for the financial and human havoc linked to their products.
"[The lawsuits are] a roundabout way of trying to shut down gun manufacturers," said the Springville Republican, who is preparing the bill for the 2000 Legislature, which begins next month. "We're not interested in participating."
New Orleans and Chicago have led 28 cities in launching gun-industry lawsuits. So far none is in a Utah court. But two Salt Lake City lawyers, Don Winder and Dick Burbidge, are part of the national legal team pursuing the cases.
The National Center to Prevent Handgun Violence says 10,369 people were murdered with firearms in the United States in 1997 -- four of every five with a handgun.
The lawsuits want to force the $2 billion firearms industry to do everything it can to reduce firearm deaths. They are modeled after the tobacco industry lawsuits that led to a $206 billion national settlement last year, but Throckmorton said he does not want Utah cities to tag along on this litigation as it did with tobacco.
Opponents of the tobacco industry said their lawsuits were necessary because lawmakers weren't acting to stop industry abuses.
Throckmorton sees the gun industry suits differently. He said gun companies should be sued only if their products malfunction, not for political purposes.
Two Utah companies have been named in at least some of the lawsuits outside the state. Browning, a Mountain Green manufacturer famed for its rifles and shotguns, has been named as a defendant in 14 cases. Another defendant is Arms Technology Inc., a Salt Lake City company that makes .22-caliber pistols for Browning that are marketed primarily for target shooting.
Throckmorton said he has not begun to solicit support for his bill, but has gotten a positive reaction about the concept from a few other lawmakers.
"This [lawsuit preemption] has been done in a few other states, and I feel strongly it should be done here," he said.
The gun-industry suits say dealers can do better in keeping guns from people with a history of violence or mental illness. Manufacturers can update their products to make them safer and less attractive for misuse by children and criminals, the lawsuits say. The mayhem caused by gun violence costs the nation as much as $126 billion a year.
Utah also has suffered the effects of gun violence.
More than half of the 207 people killed by guns in Utah in 1997 committed suicide, including 24 children. And health statistics show four children are injured by firearms for every one killed by them. Based on Utah's 1,476 violent firearm crimes and using a middle-range estimate of $2,300 per crime, the public's cost for gun crime in Utah was about $3.4 million that year.
Salt Lake City Mayor-elect Rocky Anderson suggested the target of Throckmorton's bill is misplaced. The Democrat said lawmakers have written the gun laws, so they -- not gunmakers -- should be held accountable for the laws' ineffectiveness.
"Whenever I have been asked [about filing a gun-industry lawsuit] I've said I'm not inclined to do that," Anderson said.
Burbridge, one of the Utah attorneys handling the gun-industry suits, was critical of state legislatures that have moved to block the liability lawsuits.
"What business does the [Utah] Legislature have in determining what the cities should do in confronting the epidemic of violence they face?" he said. "It's an improper intervention on the part of the Legislature on the functions of the judicial branch, not to mention the function of the municipalities."
Senate President Lane Beattie declined to comment directly on a bill he has not seen and the Legislature's lawyers have not reviewed. However, he noted that legislators step lightly when it comes to liability lawsuits.
"It certainly presents some constitutional issues," he said.
------------------
Like an animal locked up in a cage, through my inheritance I was born to rage.