ENCOURAGED BY SUCCESSFUL lawsuits against cigarette makers, cities, counties and private organizations have been trying to use a similar strategy against gun manufacturers, arguing that they are liable because they have sold defective products or marketed them in ways that increase the likelihood that they will fall into the hands of criminals.
A class-action lawsuit by some or all of the nation's 3,100 local housing authorities would be a major escalation in what promises to be a bitter battle.
Sources told NBC News that the Department of Housing and Urban Development was helping prepare the lawsuit. While HUD has taken over some troubled local housing authorities who may take part in the class action, the lawsuit is not, as originally reported, a case brought by the federal government against the gun industry.
The actual plaintiffs in the lawsuit would
be the independent local authorities that run federal housing programs.
'CAN HELP SAVE LIVES'
Officials of the public housing authority
in New Orleans, home of the troubled Saint Bernard public housing project,
said they would join the lawsuit.
Taking on the big guns MSNBC Interactive•Cities file lawsuits against firearms industry
"I think in the long run it's a good thing and I welcome it and I applaud it," New Orleans Mayor Mark Morial said. "I think the federal involvement is also a recognition that in these public housing neighborhoods, which are uniquely areas where the federal government is very involved, that gun safety can help save lives."
The gun industry is already under siege. New Orleans is one of 28 cities that has already filed suit, seeking to recover the costs of gun violence.
But the national class-action lawsuit by housing authorities would raise the stakes dramatically.
White House aides admit their real aim is to pressure gun manufacturers to settle the existing suits with the cities and agree to a code of conduct that would require the industry to:
"Every year the residents of public housing see 10,000 gun crimes and the taxpayers shell out a billion dollars in security costs," Bruce Reed, a White House domestic policy adviser, said. "That's wrong. We think the gun industry has a responsibility to change the way it does business."
But some Republicans accused the White House of trying to further politicize the issue of gun violence heading into next year's elections.
"I don't believe the American people are looking for a solution that would clog our courts with more lawsuit abuse," said Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas.
A gun industry spokesperson on Tuesday called the threat "counterproductive," saying the industry was already negotiating with cities and states on an enforceable code of conduct to reduce gun violence.
And the suits have had mixed success in the courts. A judge dismissed Cincinnati's suit in October but another judge had allowed Atlanta's suit to proceed and ordered the industry to open its files.
Meanwhile, some gun owners are firing back against the cities and counties that have sued the industry that provides them with their firearms.
On Nov. 30, the Second Amendment Foundation,
announced it had filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Conference of
Mayors and some individual mayors alleging that they had engaged in "conspiracy
to violate civil and constitutional rights" and were attempting to create
"an undue burden on lawful interstate commerce."
The Associated Press contributed to this
report