by Dave Workman
Senior Editor

US District Court Judge Jack B. Weinstein, whom firearms manufacturers and gun rights activists have accused of having an anti-gun bias, has ignored passage of a new federal law barring municipal “junk” lawsuits (S-397) and has allowed New York City’s legal action against gunmakers to move forward.

New York City is claiming in its lawsuit that the firearms industry has negligently and recklessly marketed its products, and is therefore a public nuisance. The lawsuit seeks to force gunmakers to monitor the conduct of retailers who are found to sell many firearms later involved in crimes. Lawrence Keane, vice president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), said this is just the kind of lawsuit that the new federal law is designed to prohibit.

Keane pulled no punches in his reaction to Weinstein’s ruling.

“Judge Weinstein’s decision was not only predictable, but intellectually dishonest and blatantly biased, given his decade-long track record of aiming to derail the firearms industry,” Keane stated.

The new law, S-397, is captioned the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. It was signed by President Bush earlier this Fall. Weinstein said in his ruling that the Act does not prevent the New York City lawsuit, because this case falls within narrow guidelines that allow it to move forward on the grounds that sales or marketing practices of firearms manufacturers violate federal or state laws.

The city contends that lax oversight of gun retailers by manufacturers allows too many firearms to fall into the hands of criminals. The ruling came just days after a New York City police officer was gunned down by a thug allegedly armed with a gun that originally was sold in Florida in 1994 and subsequently stolen in 1999, and somehow made its way to New York City sometime during the past six years.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence hailed Weinstein’s ruling, but the National Rifle Association predicted that most of the ruling will be overturned. Attorneys for the Brady Center’s Legal Action Project are co-counsel for New York City.

According to The New York Times, Weinstein did hand the gun industry a victory of sorts when he ruled that the new law is constitutional. He also granted defendants in the case, including Glock, Cold Manufacturing, Beretta USA, Browning and Smith & Wesson, time to appeal his ruling.

Those defendants and the Hunting and Shooting Sports Heritage Fund announced they would file an immediate appeal.

Keane told Gun Week that, thanks to The New York Times, the plaintiffs in this case have publicly acknowledged that they are attempting to legislate through litigation. That newspaper quoted the city’s lead attorney Michael S. Elkin stating that “if we’re successful it will have wide-reaching effects on how guns are marketed and sold.”

Keane said this clearly shows the plaintiffs have taken this case to Weinstein in hopes of getting a favorable ruling that will have national implications on how gun manufacturers can market and sell their products.

It may be several months before the status of this city’s suit is decided.