WASHINGTON (AP)

- The Clinton administration hopes the threat of a new, national lawsuit will persuade gun makers to negotiate with cities that accuse them of negligently allowing guns to fall into the hands of criminals. The White House is helping prepare a class-action suit against gun makers, alleging that "guns and how they are marketed have contributed to violence in public housing projects," administration officials said Tuesday. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said today that the lawsuit is not imminent. But the hope is the suit will heighten pressure on gun manufacturers to respond in a meaningful way to 28 states and cities that are seeking to recover the cost of gun violence. "It is our hope that the negotiations going on now reach fruition. We don't need protracted litigation," Lockhart said. "That's part of what the discussions going on now are looking at, to try to catalyze some fundamental reform in the way gun makers do business, as far as production and marketing."

Its hard to believe intellegent people could honestly think that "Gun Makers" market their guns to criminals. And go on to say the "Gun Makers"negligently allow guns to fall into the hands of criminals. Its mind boggleing to think ANYONE could actually beleive that!!
Before you start thinking how naive I must be, consider this-- To believe the gun makers are marketing their guns to criminals, you'd have to believe their sitting around in meetings discussing how to get their products into criminals hands!-One (or two) hundred thousand dollar a year executive asking the other "How can we reach out to criminals with this advertising campaign?" I really dont know who's naive and who isn't but I do know--I don't want to believe the previously described scenario!!

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The National Rifle Association, however, condemned the threatened lawsuit as "a frightening holiday greeting from Bill Clinton and Al Gore." "No lawful industry is safe. Who will they sue next? Automobile makers? The distiller industry? Manufacturers of baseball bats and kitchen knives?" said James J. Baker, executive director of NRA's Institute for Legislative Action. "The vast majority of Americans know that we should hold violent criminals directly responsible for their crimes."
The lawsuit by some or all of the nation's 3,100 local housing authorities would be patterned on suits filed against the industry by 29 cities and counties, the officials said. Those suits claim that gun manufacturers have sold defective products or marketed them in ways that increase the likelihood that they will be used to commit crimes.

I can not believe that a intelligent, non paranoid, person could think the above thoughts!? The top dogs are sitting around trying to figure out how to get guns into criminals hands so they can break laws!?! ANYONE who believes that needs to see a shrink!!

"When only 1 percent of the dealers are selling over 50 percent of the guns used in crimes ... obviously something is wrong and we should be taking action against that 1 percent," Andrew Cuomo, secretary of housing and urban development, said today on ABC's "Good Morning America."

I wonder if anyone took the time to check and see what type of guns the 1% are manufacturing vs what the other dealers are specializing in. Seems to me what types of guns are being used for what purposes, would have to figure into this issue somehow!?

"There are many safety features ... that could be manufactured with guns and could make a significant difference, could save lives. We have safety caps on a battle of aspirin; it makes no sense not to have safety devices on guns," Cuomo said.

I'll go along with that.--Who would argue against a statement like that?

"The administration intends to work aggressively to ... try to work to reach a settlement with the industry," White House domestic policy adviser Bruce Reed said. "If settlement is not possible, then the public housing authorities are prepared to go forward with their suit."

If issues like the above mentioned safety features are what they have in mind, then the settlement should be a done deal BUT if the government expects the gun dealers to admit to marketing their products to criminals-------any reasonable person will know that dog wont hunt!!

A negotiated agreement would allow the administration and gun control advocates to claim a victory at a time when Congress has rejected writing into law new firearms restrictions, sought by President Clinton. Administration officials said the White House and the Department of Housing and Urban Development were helping prepare the suit even though the actual plaintiff would be independent local authorities that run federal housing programs. The White House and HUD want gun makers to agree to a code of conduct that includes cracking down on disreputable gun dealers and making safer guns. The administration also wants gun makers to agree to end practices such as marketing guns that are impervious to fingerprints.

Reasonable request. Unless there's a hidden agenda thats not mentioned here, I cant see where there'd be any dissagreement here.

HUD officials would not detail any previous outreach to gun makers but said new talks were planned. The gun makers have acknowledged the talks, but objected to the characterization of the meetings as ``negotiations.'' Among the companies reportedly involved in the discussions with Spitzer have been Smith and Wesson, Sturm, Ruger and Co., Colt's Manufacturing, O.F. Mossberg and sons, Taurus, Glock and Beretta. Messages left at Colt's offices in West Hartford, Conn., were not returned Tuesday night.
New York officials have threatened to sue the manufacturers unless they agree to a similar code of conduct governing the sale and distribution of their products. Some gun makers have declared bankruptcy in the wake of the suits by local governments, and others have scaled back their product lines and decreased advertising, according to a countersuit.

I wonder how many jobs and tax dollars were lost?

The suits have had mixed success in the courts. A judge dismissed Cincinnati's suit in October, but another judge allowed Atlanta's suit to proceed and ordered the industry to open its files.

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Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Bellevue, Wash.-based Second Amendment Foundation, said if the housing authorities sue, his group likely would file another countersuit on behalf of gun makers. Gottlieb claimed that the administration was encouraging suits against the gun industry in hopes of bankrupting gun companies. The idea, he said, was "file as many suits as possible. The industry can't fight hundreds of lawsuits - it would bankrupt them."

If thats true we're all in trouble!! Forget who's right or wrong---any government agency or administration that would have this type of agenda, is in violation of a position of trust to the tax payers and voters

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Magazine articles, Senate and House committee hearings and independent study findings

To shorten the page and to let you pick and choose what you'd like to check out, - - -I'm linking the Headlines, etc., to the text, at the bottom of the page

Article in the "American Journal of Economics and Sociology". A "Multivariate Statistical Analysis" done by: Muen Bae; R. Scott; Safranski Bradley; Ik-Whan G. Kwan. Artical title: "The Effectiveness of Gun Control Laws"."Click Here" for statistical highlights.

Excerpts of statistics included in the "Citizens' Self -Defense Act of 1997" (H. R. 27)

A bill introduced in the 105th Congress- - -Introduced on JANUARY 7, 1997

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the "Citizens' Self -Defense Act of 1997".

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Check out my page on "Entitlements"

In 1992, there were nearly 40,000 deaths from guns in the U.S.
In the U.S, there are about 20,000 laws or regulations which attempt to control guns in some way.
In 1990, 24 states had no gun-control laws.
In the 26 states with gun-control laws, there were 19.6 gun-related deaths per 100,000 persons.
In the 24 states with no gun-control laws in 1990, there were 24.4 gun related deaths per 100,000.

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(1) Police cannot protect, and are not legally liable for failing to protect, individual citizens, as evidenced by the following:

(A) The courts have consistently ruled that the police do not have an obligation to protect individuals, only the public in general.
For example, in Warren v. District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. App. 1981), the court stated: " Courts have without exception concluded that when a municipality or other governmental entity undertakes to furnish police services, it assumes a duty only to the public at large and not to individual members of the community. . . ."
(B) Former Florida Attorney General Jim Smith told Florida legislators that police responded to only 200,000 of 700,000 calls for help to Dade County authorities.
(C) The United States Department of Justice found that, in 1989, there were 168,881 crimes of violence for which police had not responded within 1 hour.
(D) Currently, there are about 150,000 police officers on duty at any one time.

(2) Citizens frequently must use firearms to defend themselves, as evidenced by the following:

(A) Every year, more than 2,400,000 people in the United States use a gun to defend themselves against criminals-or more than 6,500 people a day. This means that, each year, firearms are used 60 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives.
(B) Of the 2,400,000 self-defense cases, more than 192,000 are by women defending themselves against sexual abuse.
(C) Of the 2,400,000 times citizens use their guns to defend themselves every year, 92 percent merely brandish their gun or fire a warning shot to scare off their attackers. Less than 8 percent of the time, does a citizen kill or wound his or her attacker.

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Hearing. U.S. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Washington, D.C.: GPO.
The following was presented in the April 5, 1995 testimony of Lt. Dennis Tueller of the Salt Lake City Police Department:

According to a 1994 survey done by the Police Marksman Association:
a) 95 percent of officers dislike the ban on large-capacity magazines.
b) 92 percent oppose the assault weapons ban.
c) 93 do not like the Brady bill.
According to a survey published in the July/August 1991 issue of Law Enforcement Technology, of 25,000 subscribers polled:
78.7 oppose the assault weapons ban.
84.6 percent hold the opinion that gun control does not reduce crime.
78.2 percent believe that gun laws will never prevent criminals from obtaining guns.

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Half of the households in the United States have a gun.
Americans own between 65 million and 70 million pistols.
Americans own between 125 million and 130 million rifles and shotguns.
Americans own over a million so-called "assault weapons."

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