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http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2002/12/27gunsuitwontbeap.html
Gun suit won't be appealed
Wilmington seeks help to fight crime
By ADAM TAYLOR
Staff reporter
12/27/2002
Wilmington officials will not appeal the recent dismissal of the city's lawsuit against the gun industry, a decision that ends the 3-year-old case, Mayor James M. Baker said Thursday.
In his announcement, Baker said he would like to meet with gun makers to work on ways to reduce handgun violence.
"It is our hope that as partners rather than litigants we can create new ways to eliminate criminal possession and use of firearms," he said in a letter sent Thursday to the suit's 15 defendants.
Lawrence G. Keane, vice president for the National Shooting Sports Foundation Inc., a trade association and a defendant in the case, praised the city's decision and said he would accept Baker's invitation.
"We look forward to having the opportunity to work cooperatively with the city of Wilmington on our shared goals of further reducing accidental deaths that involve firearms," he said. "I'm willing to meet with the mayor on behalf of the industry at any time."
The 1999 suit claimed the defendants - including prominent handgun makers Smith & Wesson, Colt and Glock - could make their guns safer and distribute them in ways that would prevent them from falling into criminals' hands. City officials asked to recoup more than $1 million spent to investigate 263 shootings from 1997 to 2000.
Superior Court Judge Fred S. Silverman dismissed the case on Dec. 4, saying a common law that forbids municipalities from recovering money for services paid by taxes meant the city could not ask for police overtime and emergency medical costs from the gun manufacturers.
Baker said he accepted Silverman's decision, but still believes that the gun industry could do a better job policing itself.
"You have the means and the ability to educate the public about the dangers of irresponsible firearm distribution, use and ownership," he said in the letters.
Wilmington is one of 32 cities and counties nationwide that have sued gun makers. Seven cases have been dismissed, and the rest are in various phases of litigation.
The Castano Safe Gun Litigation Group, a consortium of attorneys, handled the case for Wilmington on a contingency basis.
Reach Adam Taylor at 324-2787 or [email protected].