Closing
Arguments Completed
In NAACP Lawsuit Against Firearm Industry
“Advisory” Panel Will
Now “Consider”
NAACP Lawsuit Against Firearms Industry
BROOKLYN, NY - The NAACP made its closing
argument today in a six-week trial against the firearm industry.
It was a last ditch and futile attempt to convince Brooklyn
federal court Judge Jack B. Weinstein and the “advisory” panel
that the firearm industry had knowingly sold guns to criminals
and subverted the law.
“No proof exists, of course, because the
NAACP’s allegation is simply false,” said Lawrence G. Keane,
vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting
Sports Foundation (NSSF). The NSSF is the trade association
for the firearms industry.
Unfortunately, the NAACP’s lawyer, Elisa
Barnes, improperly manipulated its case into the court of
her hand-picked judge. Judge Weinstein is widely regarded
as one of the nation’s most liberal, activist judges. “We
fear that Judge Weinstein may have decided the verdict in
this case long before the trial started,” Keane said.
The
NAACP's suit seeks to blame gun makers for criminal shootings
in African-American communities. It wants the court to require
manufacturers and distributors to use the ATFE law enforcement
trace database to investigate federally licensed dealers.
The database is not available to the manufacturers. It was
made available under a confidentiality order to be used solely
for this case.
The NAACP claimed the ATFE data shows which
federally licensed dealers are corrupt. “The NAACP wants firearm
companies to use data they do not have to conduct investigations
law enforcement does not want them to conduct,” Keane said.
The ATFE continually cautions that just because a trace has
been made doesn't mean anyone in the chain of distribution
has done anything wrong.
The NAACP’s and its lawyer’s “evidence” and
claims have already been rejected by New York’s highest Court.
“New York law is clear. The ATFE’s trace database is not a
substitute for actual evidence of wrongdoing,” Keane said.
In 1999, Elisa Barnes, now the attorney for
the NAACP, brought a virtually identical case to Judge Weinstein
known as the Hamilton case. Barnes used the same experts
and the same “evidence” to try the Hamilton case.
In rejecting the Hamilton verdict,
New York’s high court said, “In essence, plaintiffs argue
that defendants had an affirmative duty to investigate and
identify corrupt dealers. This is neither feasible nor appropriate
for the manufacturers…. manufacturers should not make any
attempt to investigate illegal gun trafficking on their own
since such attempts could disrupt pending criminal investigations
and endanger the lives of undercover officers.”
As recently as March of 2003, the ATFE again
reminded industry "not to undertake their own criminal
investigations or take any other action that may interfere
with a specific ATFE or other governmental investigation unless
directed to do so by a law enforcement agency.”
“As the City of Boston stated when it voluntarily
dropped its case against the industry, we ‘are genuinely concerned
with and are committed to, the safe, legal and responsible
sale and use of [our] products’. No one is more concerned
about the problem of illegal guns than the industry itself.
That’s why we work so cooperatively with law enforcement to
assist them in combating gun crime,” Keane said.
In closing arguments, lawyers for the gun
makers emphasized the NAACP’s abject failure to present any
actual evidence that any defendant had willingly and knowingly
sold firearms to criminals or had, in any way, subverted any
of our nation’s 20,000 firearms laws. They also argued that
the plaintiff’s expert’s opinions were the result of cherry
picking statistics to arrive at preordained anti-gun conclusions.
“We have laid bare the NAACP’s case. The
emperor has no clothes,” Keane declared.
“Any verdict against the defendants in this
case will be inappropriately based on politics, anti-gun bias
and emotion - not on the law, facts or evidence,” Keane added.”
“The NAACP lawsuit is the poster child for
why the Senate urgently needs to pass the Protection of Lawful
Commerce in Arms Act (S. 659),” Keane said. “Last month the
House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the bill. A
majority of the Senate already supports the bill, as does
the White House. Over 30 states have enacted similar, common
sense legislation,” Keane added.
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To view the entire press kit for the NAACP
trial, go to www.hsshf.org/legal
and click on “NAACP Trial”. |
