Guns sue government.;)
posted 04-26-2000 13:53 ÿÿÿ ÿ ÿÿ
Wednesday, April 26, 2000
Contact: Bob Delfay or Doug Painter
(703) 299-9470 or (203) 426-1320
Industry Group and Seven Police Firearms Manufacturers
Sue Government Officials--Conspiracy Alleged
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The National Shooting Sports Foundation and seven police firearms
companies today filed suit in federal court against Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development
(HUD) Andrew Cuomo, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Connecticut Attorney General
Richard Blumenthal and mayors and other officials of 14 municipalities, charging them with an
illegal
conspiracy in restraint of trade and in violation of the Commerce Clause of the United States
Constitution.
"The lawsuit arises from a politically-motivated scheme in which these bureaucrats have
sought to
bully law enforcement professionals into buying handguns based not on the quality or safety
of the
product, but on capitulation by the manufacturer to a regulatory agenda concocted by these
officials," Robert Delfay, President of the NSSF, stated. "We are here to expose a plan that
brazenly
places political self-interest above police and citizen safety."
"These local officials have tried everything from litigation to economic extortion to compel
compliance
on a national level with their own individual ideas about gun design, ownership and
distribution,"
Delfay said. "That is wrong by any measure of law, ethics or fairness. Our democratic process
is
being perverted, the power vested in our elected leaders is being ignored and the Constitution
is
being trampled upon by HUD Secretary Cuomo and other defendants who have formed an
improper
alliance with a band of lawyers to sue us into submission."
The suit by NSSF and the firearms manufacturers asks a federal court in Atlanta, site of many
of the
actions undertaken in furtherance of the conspiracy, to:
? Acknowledge that Secretary Cuomo1s efforts and that of other defendants to impose rules
and
regulations regarding the design and distribution of firearms exceed the limits of authority
granted to
their offices by Congress and by the U.S. Constitution;
? Prevent Cuomo and other defendants from further steps that violate the Firearms Owners'
Protection Act of 1986;
? Find that the preferential purchase scheme imposed by the defendants violates the
Commerce
Clause of Article I of the U.S. Constitution; and
? Prevent state and local officials from taking actions that restrict interstate trade or foreign
commerce.
"An anti-gun agenda does not excuse anti-democratic behavior," Delfay stated. "The people
of the
United States have placed the authority to regulate firearm design and distribution in the
hands of
Congress, not in the hands of a small contingent of self-chosen politicians and their
attorneys."
Delfay also distributed letters from the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and the Law
Enforcement
Alliance of America (LEAA) rejecting the Administration's plan. "The top concern of any law
enforcement agency handling purchasing firearms is officer safety, not adherence to a
particular
political philosophy," stated the FOP. "Law enforcement officers should not be used as political
pawns," wrote LEAA.
"This is not about locks on guns or even gun safety. This is about Eliot Spitzer telling a
homeowner
in Iowa what gun he or she can buy, from whom and how," Delfay said.
NSSF is the voice of the firearms industry with over 1,800 members who are involved in all
aspects of
the shooting sports. The firearms companies involved in the suits are Beretta U.S.A. Corp.,
Browning
Arms, Inc., Colt1s Manufacturing, Inc., Glock, Inc., SIG Arms, Inc., Sturm, Ruger & Company,
Inc.,
and Taurus International Manufacturing, Inc. |
