Gun Manufacturers

Richard Vatz takes us on a meandering journey in his op-ed "Who will be our next profiles in courage?" (Jan. 15). He wonders "Where do our current leaders land on the courage criterion? ... Will they recognize, as one of my colleagues puts it, that outrage about the Newtown school shootings doesn't justify policies that cannot possibly stop or minimize such outrages?" It amazes me that leaders in our nation, which is rightfully proud of the contributions and enormous sacrifices made by "the greatest generation" in fighting World War II, go weak-kneed when confronted by the National Rifle Association.

I appreciate the articles the sun has published on both sides of the gun control debate. As a person who has spent all of her adult professional life in elementary education, I hear the National Rifle Association's proposal to put armed guards in schools as a solution that doesn't address the many other shootings that occur elsewhere. Those in education know what is meant by the "hidden curriculum. " It is a side effect of education that is not formally taught but that students pick up from the norms, values and beliefs conveyed by the social environment of the classroom and the school.

WASHINGTON - Relatives of the Washington-area sniper victims hailed yesterday what they called a groundbreaking legal victory over the company that manufactured the stolen rifle the snipers used. The company, Bushmaster Firearms, agreed to pay $550,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that it was negligent in selling guns to an irresponsible dealer. The settlement, reached late Tuesday, marked the first time a gun manufacturer has agreed to pay damages in a case in which one of its weapons was used to commit criminal violence.

As cities prepare to sue the gun industry for not taking steps to keep their products out of criminals' hands, critics of the industry are building an argument that gun makers began making more powerful handguns to make up for stagnant sales and that these guns quickly became popular among criminals.While the marketing innovation increased the gun makers' profits, critics contend, it also helped account for the rise in homicides in the 1980s and the greater seriousness of gunshot wounds in recent years.

Baltimore was added yesterday to the list of dozens of American cities and counties in which a legal assault is under way against gun manufacturers and others for alleged product-safety violations. John and Carole Price of Manchester filed a civil suit yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court seeking damages in the fatal shooting of their 13-year-old son in August 1998 by a younger boy who had found a 9 mm handgun in the Baltimore County townhouse where his father was a tenant. Though the lawsuit names as defendants the boy and his father, the gun's owner and the Fallston pawnshop where it was purchased, the Prices' attorneys focused on the gun's manufacturer, Sturm, Ruger & Co. of Southport, Conn.

As the Boston Marathon bombing case reminds us, we are potentially all under constant surveillance when we walk down the streets of an American city. Our public movements are videotaped, who we interact with is observed, and our cell phone calls readily traced. We accept these gross incursions on our civil liberties because, well, look what they've done! We got the bad guys! And, as testified to by the deliriously cheering crowds in Watertown who had been ordered to stay locked in their homes for the day, the loss of liberty and freedom entailed was well worth the price.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Survivors of four victims killed in last year's bloody rampage at a San Francisco high-rise filed lawsuits yesterday against manufacturers of the semiautomatic weapons used in the deadly shooting spree.The suits, a new tactic in the war against guns, are similar to legal actions brought by smokers against cigarette companies. The suits charge that the gun manufacturers were negligent in selling the deadly weapons to the public because they have no legitimate civilian use.Gian Luigi Ferri, the assailant in the July 1 shootings, killed eight people and wounded six others at the law firm of Pettit & Martin before killing himself.

NEW ORLEANS -- Mayor Marc Morial says money is not the city's main objective as it collaborates with some trial lawyers in suing handgun manufacturers and other parties. Money had better not be the objective.Ten manufacturers produce 90 percent of U.S.-made handguns. The entire industry's annual gross from handgun sales, $2 billion to $3 billion, cannot provide much of a windfall -- after the lawyers take their cuts -- for the 50 or more cities that may sue.The cities say they are trying to recoup the costs of misuses of the manufacturers' products.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening is proposing to spend $3 million over three years on gun safety research in an attempt to win support for his child-proof guns legislation. The funding proposal is likely to benefit Maryland's only handgun manufacturer, Beretta USA Corp., which some legislators worry would be threatened by Glendening's "Smart-Guns" bill. That legislation would require all handguns sold in the state to be equipped with built-in mechanical trigger locks and, eventually, a high-tech system to prevent anyone other than the owner from using them.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton left open the possibility that a 6-year-old Cuban boy caught in a fractious, international custody dispute could remain in the United States, though he vowed that "that politics or threats" would not determine the boy's fate.In an hour-long news conference that roved from the future of his marriage to the fate of the Panama Canal, Clinton tried to sum up a tumultuous year that started with his impeachment trial and will end weeks after the collapse of trade talks in Seattle.