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The anti-gun suits were the first since New Orleans and Chicago filed last fall, though the gun litigation is a major topic of discussion this week at a Washington meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and a number of cities have said they too will enter the fray.
Jack Adkins, director of operations for the American Shooting Sports Council, an Atlanta-based gun manufacturers group, denounced the latest lawsuits as a "crass attempt to set new public policy through the courthouse rather than the statehouse." Along with gun-rights advocates, the group plans to support legislation in various states to restrict or pre-empt anti-gun suits by the cities.
In another protest against the suits, the industry has told New Orleans that it is canceling plans to hold its big annual trade show in that city next winter and will move it to Las Vegas.
With the '99 show set to begin next week in Atlanta, gun industry officials were outraged by Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell's recent announcement that he also intends to file an anti-gun suit.
The event draws thousands of gun manufacturers, distributors and retailers each year.
Gun industry officials were outraged by Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell's recent announcement that he also intends to file an anti-gun suit.
It was too late to move this year's show, but industry sponsors last week received a letter
from Campbell stating that he had ``not meant to embarrass you or your organization'' and hoped ``you will have a successful convention.''
In the letter, Campbell also promised not to serve papers on any exhibitors or attendees during the four-day show.
The Miami-Dade suit, which seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages against 26 gun manufacturers and three trade groups, is the
narrower of the two new claims filed Wednesday. Following the same path as New Orleans, the suit accuses gun makers of failing to incorporate
certain safety features _ particularly personalized or ``smart'' gun technology that could prevent gunsfrom being fired by thieves, curious children
or other unauthorized persons.
In announcing the suit, Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas said that ``despite industry rhetoric, the fact is that guns do kill people. They have killed
our children by the hundreds. And the real tragedy is that those deaths could have been prevented.''
Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim, in announcing his city's suit, said: ``For too long Bridgeport taxpayers and residents have been responsible for
the cost of handgun violence. ... By taking this action, we are saying to the handgun industry, `From now on, you are responsible for the costs
associated with your dangerous products.' ''
His suit accuses gun makers of failing to incorporate safety features and of abetting the flow of guns into the criminal market by failing ``to
implement sufficient controls over the methods of firearm distribution.''
The claim is similar to the one advanced in the Chicago case and in a trailblazing anti-gun suit that is in its fourth week of trial in U.S. District Court
in Brooklyn. That private case, filed in 1995 and known as Hamilton vs. Accu-Tek, seeks a finding of collective liability against the industry for
allegedly flooding the market with more handguns than could possibly be absorbed by legal buyers _ knowing that tens of thousands will quickly
find their way to gang members and crooks.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein dismissed 15 gundistributors from the case, although some 30 manufacturers are still defendants.
Adkins of the shooting sports council said gun makers can defeat such claims on the merits, but it's ``a different ballgame when you're faced with
15 or 30 or 100 lawsuits'' by cities. ``We will fight them as long as we can,'' he said, but ``you can't fight them all.''
LA TIMES-WASHINGTON POST--01-27-99 2107EST
The tax credit proposals will appear in the president's fiscal 2000 budget request being presented to Congress next Monday. Administration officials say they want to encourage the purchase of highly fuel-efficient vehicles because about 20 percent of so-called greenhouse gas emissions come from cars and light trucks.
"Tax credits for electric, fuel cell and hybrid vehicles will help to move these high efficiency technologies from the laboratory to the highway. These technologies can significantly reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas," says a draft of the budget proposal disclosed this week by White House officials.
The president wants a tax credit of up to $4,000 for consumers who purchase vehicles powered by electricity and fuel cells. Such a credit is already law, but it is set to be phased out between 2002 and 2005. The administration plans to extend the full $4,000 credit through 2006, according to the budget proposal.
A new tax credit would be available for so-called hybrid vehicles that use several kinds of power to achieve high gas mileage. For example, several automakers are developing or selling cars powered by gasoline and electricity.
But the new credit will not be available until 2003. The vehicles eligible for the tax credit could be cars, minivans, sport utility vehicles or pickups.
According to the plan, consumers driving a vehicle that is one-third more fuel efficient than a comparable vehicle in its class would get a $1,000 tax credit if the vehicle were purchased between 2003 and 2004.
Between 2003 and 2006, if the vehicle is two-thirds more fuel efficient, the consumer would get a $2,000 tax credit. The car owner would get $3,000 for a vehicle that is twice as fuel efficient. Between 2004 and 2006, an owner would get $4,000 for a vehicle that is three times as fuel efficient.
Several automakers welcomed the tax credits.
"It's a good step in the right direction," Ford Motor Co. spokeswoman Sara Tatcio said Wednesday.
"We support the concept of tax incentives for advanced technology vehicles," said General Motors Corp.'s Pat Morrissey.
GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler AG are working on hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles, but don't plan to have them ready for sale before 2001.
"The investment (in these projects) is incredibly huge and the consumer reaction is uncertain," said Jim Olson, a Toyota Motor Corp. senior vice president. "We need incentives to help jump-start them" in the marketplace.
Toyota has been selling its hybrid car, the Prius, in Japan since 1997 and plans to begin selling it in the United States by 2000.
There are less than 10,000 electric vehicles being used across the nation.
However, some automakers, such as GM and Honda, say their customers are taking advantage of the $4,000 tax credit. There are 561 customers leasing GM's EV1 electric vehicle in California and Arizona and they can use the credit, said GM spokeswoman Mia Walton.
The administration budget also calls for $264 million in federal spending on work related to the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, a joint effort by domestic automakers and the government to develop a five-passenger car that gets 80 mpg by 2004.
That is a $24 million increase over the amount appropriated for the project for this fiscal year.
Dental records suggested the man who died in the July 1997 car crash was Bruce Alan Littleton, authorities said. But police say they stopped Littleton in Smyrna last week for a traffic violation.
Littleton, who at the time of the crash faced drug charges, had been using an alias, according to police. Police now say that the man who died in the crash was a homicide victim and that Littleton killed him.
"We can't go into the details at this point but we feel he killed the individual and placed him in the vehicle," Richard
Brogan, a special agent of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said Wednesday.
Littleton was held on the drug charges and will face homicide charges once the body is identified.
01-28-99
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