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Tuesday November 16 9:05 PM ET
Miami Gun Suit Could Take Firearms Off Market
By Jane Sutton
MIAMI (Reuters) - If Miami's county scores a total victory in its lawsuit against the gun manufacturers, firearm sales would end altogether, a Florida judge said on Tuesday.
Miami-Dade County filed a product liability lawsuit against two dozen gun-makers, distributors and industry groups in January, seeking to recoup tax dollars spent treating gunfire victims and investigating gun-related crimes.
Circuit Court Judge Amy Dean heard arguments on Tuesday on the gun manufacturers' request to dismiss the lawsuit on grounds that it is overly vague and that the county has no legal standing to sue.
The judge did not rule, giving both sides until Friday to file more briefs. She also asked the county's attorney if Miami-Dade County thought it could stop crime by toughening regulation of gun manufacturers.
``If you were to get exactly what you wanted, they'd be taken off the market entirely,'' the judge said.
Defendants in the lawsuit include Smith & Wesson Corp., Beretta U.S.A. Corp., Glock Inc., Sturm, Ruger & Company, inc., Colt's Manufacturing Company Inc., Browning Arms Co. and Carl Walther GmbH.
The suit did not specify a dollar amount, but seeks to hold the gun industry liable for ``hundreds of millions of dollars'' the county has spent on police, paramedics, hospital expenses and trials stemming from gunfire.
The county's attorney, Dennis Henigan, said the gun-makers sold products that were defective because they lacked safety devices such as trigger locks and load indicators that would reveal whether there is a bullet in the firing chamber.
``Every single one of these defendants sells unreasonably dangerous guns,'' said Henigan, an attorney with the Washington-based Center to Prevent Handgun Violence. ``We are talking about specific design defects that cost lives.''
He said the manufactures had failed to pressure retailers to prevent illegal sales, and had no incentive to do so.
``The defendants have established a distribution system that allows guns to flow easily into the hands of criminals and children,'' he said.
Anne Kimball, representing all the defendants, said the county was attempting to legislate the gun industry, something that the Florida Constitution gives the legislature sole authority to do.
She said the lawsuit was too vague to proceed under state liability laws that require that there be specific plaintiffs with specific complaints involving specific products.
Kimball called it ``an amorphous group of plaintiffs complaining about an amorphous group of products.''
``They're suing all the manufacturers and they're claiming all the products are defective,'' she said.
In the case of gun injuries stemming from crimes, she said Florida law does not allow manufacturers of lawfully sold products to be held liable for criminal actions of third parties over whom they have no control.
She also said that although people wounded by accidental gun shots may have grounds to sue, the county's injuries in such cases were ``purely derivative.''
Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas, who filed the lawsuit, said he had legal standing as mayor as well as a duty to protect county residents. He said he was using the courts in an attempt to crack down on the gun industry because the Florida legislature refused to do so.
``Every year that I've gone to the legislature we have basically been told to take our case elsewhere,'' he said.
He also said that 22 more people under age 18 had died from gunshots in Miami-Dade County since the lawsuit was filed.
Miami-Dade County is Florida's largest county, with 2.1 million residents, and has logged 763 gunfire deaths in the past two years.