U.S. to Join Legal Fray Against Gun Makers

The federal government is throwing its weight behind the legal assault on gun manufacturers, intensifying pressure on them to adopt sweeping changes in their business practices by settling lawsuits already filed against the industry by 29 cities and counties.

Clinton administration officials said Tuesday that they will join settlement negotiations aimed at limiting the flow of handguns to kids and criminals. And unless they see progress, they said the Department of Housing and Urban Development may join public housing authorities in an unprecedented nationwide class action seeking reimbursement for security and other costs of gun violence.

HUD, which provides funding to more than 3,000 local housing authorities, would coordinate the action and might appear as a plaintiff on behalf of local authorities that are in receivership, an official said.

Although the case could be filed by early next year, administration officials cautioned that the timing was uncertain and that no final decision had been made to go forward.

But the mere threat of U.S. involvement is sure to inject a note of urgency into nascent settlement talks between the gun makers and local governments, including the city and county of Los Angeles.

Bruce Reed, President Clinton’s chief domestic policy advisor, acknowledged that the White House is “trying to spur along” settlement talks between the industry and the cities and counties.

“We hope the prospect of a lawsuit by the public housing authorities will intensify the pressure the cities and states are already putting on the industry to reach an agreement,” Reed said.

Moreover, Reed said, administration officials “are planning to join the negotiations in an effort to help speed them along.”

“I think it’s a very positive development,” said Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn, adding that federal involvement would help “get some real meaningful reforms from the manufacturers.”

“This substantially ups the ante for the industry,” said Dennis Henigan, legal director for the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence and co-counsel to many of the cities and counties that have filed lawsuits. “I think it is a watershed development.”

Industry representatives said the government has no grounds for an anti-gun suit. “The federal government licenses people to make and sell guns,” industry lawyer James P. Dorr told the Washington Post. “To sue someone they have authorized to sell those products has no basis in the law,” according to Dorr, whose clients include Smith & Wesson Corp. and Sturm, Ruger & Co.

The Second Amendment Foundation, a gun rights group that has sued the cities and counties--accusing them of trying to make firearms unavailable or unaffordable--has likened anti-gun litigation to blaming the National Weather Service for storm damage.

Beginning with New Orleans 14 months ago, 29 governments have sued handgun makers, accusing them of promoting sales to juveniles and criminals by flooding the market with more firearms than legitimate buyers could possibly absorb.

The suits have also accused the companies of failing to incorporate safety features, including technology that could prevent guns from being fired by curious children or by criminals who obtain them by theft. A similar case has been filed against the industry by the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, citing the disproportionate harm to African Americans from what it termed the industry’s “hear no evil, see no evil” approach to firearm sales.

While arguing they are not responsible for criminal misuse of firearms, the companies have entered settlement talks with municipal representatives. However, a meeting held Tuesday in Washington was the first since talks began in late September, and negotiators for the municipalities have chafed at the slow pace of negotiations.

The prospect of federal involvement is likely to change the dynamics of the talks because the industry consists of mostly small to mid-size companies that may be unable to resist a protracted legal siege.

A federal attack on gun makers would parallel the massive lawsuit filed in the fall by the Justice Department against the tobacco industry. But Big Tobacco has many times the size and staying power of the handgun makers.

Financial strain induced by the wave of lawsuits already appears to be contributing to a shakeout in the industry. Pistol maker Davis Industries of Chino filed for bankruptcy in May, due at least in part to the lawsuits. Another Southern California maker of cheap handguns, Lorcin Engineering of Mira Loma, recently announced its closure.

And in October, Colt’s Manufacturing Co. of West Hartford, Conn., a storied name in firearms, said it would stop producing some of its less profitable models. “We have had to face the harsh reality of the significant impact which our litigation defense costs are having on our ability to operate competitively in the marketplace,” the company said in a letter to distributors.

The threat of federal action “puts just enormous new pressure on the [handgun] industry” to settle the pending cases, Henigan said.

The cities and counties have been joined in settlement talks by New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer and Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal, who have threatened to sue if the companies don’t settle.

As the price for peace, the local governments are calling on manufacturers to adopt a code of conduct requiring them to actively curb the flow of guns to juveniles and criminals.

One settlement proposal calls on the manufacturers to deal only with retailers who agree to limit sales to one gun per person each month. Another would require manufacturers to cut off supplies to dealers whose names frequently show up in tracing data as the source of guns used in crimes.

The plaintiffs are also demanding an end to advertising that promotes or suggests criminal use of guns--for example, by emphasizing how easy it is to conceal a firearm. They are also calling for an end to ads that state that owning a firearm in the home increases personal safety.

In the safety area, negotiators are seeking a deadline for the industry to implement “smart” gun technology to keep weapons from being fired by unauthorized people.

Levin reported from Los Angeles and Rubin from Washington. Times staff writers Eric Lichtblau and James Gerstenzang in Washington also contributed to this story.