Landmark Precedent Blames Gun Manufacturers For Firearms Deaths

UPI | January 20 2005

In New York City, gun makers and dealers are now liable for injuries or deaths caused by criminals who use their weapons, the New York Post said Wednesday.

The landmark, first in the nation law -- one of four regulating gun sales and possession -- goes further than any other city's effort to hold the gun industry financially responsible for crimes involving their weapons.

"We need to do everything we can to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and out of the hands of children," said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "There's just no argument here. Guns kill people, it's time to get them off the street."

Under the new law, gun makers and dealers are held liable only when they do not comply with a strict code of conduct regulating sales and transfers of their weapons to keep them out of the hands of criminals.

Among the rules that could hold a dealer or manufacturer liable are multiple gun sales to one person or sales at a gun show without performing a criminal-background check. City lawmakers took more than two years to hammer out the legislation.