THE state attorneys general and trial lawyers behind the recently finalized $206 billion tobacco settlement have opened up a Pandora’s box of legal tricks. The agreement wasn’t even completed when mayors started using similar legal maneuvers against gun makers and retailers. Only 16 per cent of Americans favor banning handguns, and only 5 per cent favor banning rifles. Yet, if the mayors have their way, the opinions of the vast majority will not matter. In the lawsuits now threatened against gun makers, the litigants are using the courts to make an end run around the legislative process to enact a de facto ban on guns. Their goal is not to win these weak cases in court, but simply to bankrupt legitimate companies through a coordinated effort to simultaneously bring dozens of lawsuits and to impose massive legal costs.
When governments perceive a problem with a product, they can either regulate it or tax it. For example, if “too many” guns are indeed being sold, as Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley claims, gun sales could be taxed even more heavily than they are now. But the state legislatures and the Federal Government decided against further expanding already extensive controls. Now the cities want the courts to punish law-abiding manufacturers for past sales that complied with existing gun laws.
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