Defense
Rests Case In NAACP Lawsuit Against Firearms Industry
BROOKLYN, NY - Lawyers representing members
of the firearm industry sued by the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) rested their case
today after just one week of testimony. Lawyers for the gun
makers and distributors called a number of highly esteemed
experts who demonstrated to Brooklyn federal court Judge Jack
B. Weinstein, and an “advisory” jury, the scientific flaws
and other problems with the research and opinions offered
earlier in the trial by experts retained by the NAACP.
“It has now been irrefutably established
that the ‘opinions’ offered by the NAACP’s so-called experts
were based on agenda-driven science. Time and again we established
how the NAACP’s ‘experts’ cherry-picked information to arrive
at preordained conclusions, ignoring or misrepresenting any
data that didn’t fit those conclusions,” said Lawrence G.
Keane, vice president and general counsel for the National
Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).
“The intellectual dishonesty of the NAACP’s
‘junk science’ has been exposed. ‘The emperor has no clothes’,”
Keane said.
Highlights from the defense’s case included
testimony from Professor Nancy Mathiowetz, PhD, an expert
on survey methods; Professor Gary Kleck, PhD, an expert criminologist
whose research specializes on guns and crime, and Professor
William Wecker, PhD, an expert on statistics.
Professor Mathiowetz refuted the testimony
of NAACP witness Lucy Allen, who had offered a number of dubious
opinions allegedly based on ATF trace data. Much of the trace
data Ms. Allen used has never before been available to anyone
outside of law enforcement - including the gun makers. The
data analyzed can not be used outside of this litigation.
Professor Mathiowetz testified that Allen’s
interpretation of the data was fatally flawed because of numerous
errors in her methodology. Professor Mathiowetz also testified
that it was not scientifically appropriate to base any opinions
on the data Ms. Allen relied upon. None of the data was capable
of, or reliable for, answering the questions Ms. Allen said
she was trying to answer.
Professor Kleck testified that the secondary,
or used market, is where the vast majority of criminals get
the guns they use in crime not, as the NAACP claims, from
firearms dealers through the lawful and highly regulated sale
and distribution of firearms, known as the primary market.
Professor Kleck also testified that gun trafficking by licensed
gun dealers is extremely rare and that gun shows are not a
significant source of guns for criminals. His conclusions
are consistent with recent reports by the U.S. Department
of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives (ATFE).
Professor Kleck testified that academic evidence
indicated more guns are stolen every year than are used annually
in violent crime. This refuted the NAACP’s main premise that
most criminals get guns from corrupt dealers.
Finally, Professor Kleck testified that the
gun control restrictions the NAACP is seeking to have Judge
Weinstein impose nation wide on the sale and distribution
of firearms would not stop criminals from acquiring guns.
“Using appropriate evidence and research methods, Professor
Kleck established the NAACP’s allegation are untrue and their
desired remedies ineffective,” Keane said.
The gun makers also offered the “advisory”
jury the expert testimony of William Wecker, PhD., a world-renowned
statistician. Like Mathiowetz, Professor Wecker established
that Ms. Allen’s methods were suspect and her “opinions” unreliable.
“Professors Mathiowetz’s and Wecker’s critique
left little, if any, of Ms. Allen’s opinions standing. As
we saw, not even Ms. Allen’s resume was reliable,” Keane said,
referring to the fact that Ms. Allen’s resume appeared to
have been inflated.
The gun makers also played portions of the
taped deposition of NAACP employee Mildred Roxborough. The
NAACP presented Roxborough as the person within the NAACP
with the most knowledge of wrongdoing by the gun makers and
distributors. Not surprisingly, Ms. Roxborough testified the
NAACP had no knowledge that any defendant had broken any law,
had done anything that caused a criminal to get a gun, had
done anything that caused a firearms related injury, or caused
any harm to the NAACP.
(A segment of this video deposition can be
viewed at
www.hsshf.org/legal, by clicking on “NAACP Trial and then
clicking on “What the NAACP knows about industry wrongdoing”.)
“This case is Judge Weinstein’s ‘Mulligan’,”
Keane said, referring to the 1999 Hamilton trial Ms.
Barnes tried to a verdict against gun makers before Judge
Weinstein but which was later reversed by an unanimous appellate
court.
“It is the same plaintiffs’ lawyer calling
the same experts who are offering the same tired and discredited
opinions before the same hand-picked judge,” commented Keane.
“New York’s high court in the Hamilton case rejected
Ms. Barnes’ theory, being advanced again here, that manufacturers
are responsible for the actions of criminals. New York law
is clear; the ATFE trace data cannot serve as a substitute
for actual evidence,” Keane said.
The gun makers, however, are resigned to
the fact that Judge Weinstein will likely rule against them
no matter the evidence or the law. “While we hope for the
best, we know whose courtroom we are in. Suffice it to say
the case is being tried for the appeal,” Keane said.
“The NAACP lawsuit is the poster child for
why the Senate needs to pass the Protection of Lawful Commerce
in Arms Act (S. 659),” Keane said. The House of Representatives
has already overwhelmingly passed the bill. Additionally,
30 states have already enacted similar common sense legislation.
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To view the entire press kit for this trial,
go to Web
site and click on “NAACP Trial”. |