Rendell urges majors to sue gun industry

But Philadelphia has not jet joined cities such as Chicago and New Orleans in suing over the costs of gun violence. Partly at the urging of Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, dozens of U.S. cities are considering filing lawsuits against gun manufacturers, hoping to hold them financially responsible for gun-related violence. But whether Rendell will jump on his own bandwagon remains to be seen. Already, two major cities -- New Orleans and Chicago -- have begun litigation against the gun industry in an action that many are comparing to the successful multi-state attack on the tobacco industry, which yielded a historic settlement of more than $200 billion. And with firearm control set to be a hot topic of discussion at the upcoming national Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., next week, many more cities -- including Philadelphia -- could soon follow. Rendell, who has been mulling over such a suit for more than a year, has once more been thrust into the national spotlight for his innovative efforts. The two-term mayor and Penn alumnus is entering his final year in office, and it is widely rumored that he will seek state or national office in 2000 or 2002. "Cutting down the number of crimes committed with guns? is important to any mayor, especially Mayor Rendell," said city spokesperson David Yarkin. "That is why we've seen his involvement in this issue." The proposed plan involves dozens of cities simultaneously filing lawsuits against gun makers in hopes that the sheer quantity of suits will force the industry to take notice -- and if nothing else try to make their products a little safer. Rendell has not yet officially decided whether Philadelphia will file its own suit, but the answer could come at the Washington conference, set for January 27 to 29. Like many American metropolitan areas, the City of Philadelphia has long been plagued by gun violence. In 1996, for example, 80 percent of the city's homicides were committed using guns. The individual cities have different goals in filing suits. Some want to focus on forcing the industry to improve its safety standards, while others are more interested in recovering damages and reducing the number of guns on the street. New Orleans is an example of the former, while Chicago of the latter, according to Naomi Paiss, a spokesperson for the Washington D.C.-based Center to Prevent Handgun Violence. Philadelphia, she noted, falls somewhere in the middle. Regardless, Paiss said destroying the industry is not anyone's intention. "The point of these lawsuits is not to bankrupt the gun industry," she explained. "The point is to make them make a safer product. The more lawsuits they face, the more incentive they have to sit down and reach a solution." But Jack Adkins, director of operations for the American Shooting Sports Council, said the suits would only blame manufacturers for the actions of a small group of criminals. "We have no control over the intent of the end user of our product," he said. "I don't know of any industry that does." Adkins noted that multiple lawsuits would certainly pose a threat to the industry. "[The lawsuits] are geared towards the fact that the industry would be in a tough position to defend itself," he said. "We could handle maybe two or three suits, but if you file 10 or 20 or 100, it hurts the ability of an organization to defend itself. There would be a number of smaller manufacturers that would file for bankruptcy." Still, he said the industry would not accept excessive regulation imposed by the cities. "We'd rather have them sue," Adkins said.

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