Peter Jennings - World News transcript....
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
With Peter Jennings:
PETER JENNINGS: The results tonight of an ABC News investigation into the willingness of the gun industry to more seriously address the question of safety. Five cities have now launched lawsuits against the industry. And one of the major claims in those suits is that gun makers could, if they wanted, make safer guns and thus prevent tens of thousands of accidental shootings. Here's ABC's Bob Woodruff.
BOB WOODRUFF, ABC News: (voice-over) In 1988, Frank Brooks invented a gun lock that he thought would change the industry. It is simple and fast.
FRANK BROOKS, President, Saf-T-Lok: In less than five seconds,
even in the dark, ready to go.
BOB WOODRUFF: (voice-over) For years, Brooks tried to sell his "Saf-T-Lok" to gun makers, some of whom said they wanted to make their guns safer. But documents obtained by ABC News tell a different story. Most major gun makers dismissed the lock outright. Six years ago, Smith & Wesson wrote it "interferes with the reliability of the revolver."
Colt, on the other hand, liked the lock. Three years ago, Colt actually drafted a press release endorsing it. Then suddenly, Colt backed out.
FRANK BROOKS: It was a marriage license. We felt that Colt was going to be putting this on every gun that they made.
BOB WOODRUFF: (on camera) And then they changed their mind?
FRANK BROOKS: They just didn't do anything.
BOB WOODRUFF: (voice-over) After first expressing interest in the lock, the company had a change in management. Colt now says they do not believe the lock would make the gun safer. They say putting the lock on a gun could make it misfire and lead to more lawsuits against the
company. And so it went. No gun company would buy it.
(on camera) Lawyers for the city of New Orleans, who are suing the gun makers, tell ABC News that this across-the-board rejection of Saf-T-Lok will play a key role in their suit against the gun companies. They say that as with seat belts in cars and child-proof caps on drug bottles, the gun
makers had an obligation and the ability to make guns safer for children and unintentional users.
WENDELL GAUTHIER, Attorney for City of News Orleans: The gun manufacturers don't want to be regulated into putting safety locks. These documents show that the technology was available, and for some reason, they suppressed it.
BOB WOODRUFF: (voice-over) The reason, according to the Beretta Company, was quite simple. The lock did not work.
JEFFREY REH, Beretta USA, General Counsel: We tested the gun with the lock in it, and it malfunctioned 18 times out of 27 rounds that we fired.
BOB WOODRUFF: (voice-over) Which is not what people in the law enforcement community found. Rich Roberts tested the lock for the International Union of Police Associations and recommended it as an ideal device when police are off-duty.
(on camera) Many of the manufacturers say they've tested this lock with this gun, and it failed.
RICH ROBERTS, International Union of Police Assoc.: Well, we tested it in field conditions over about a three-month period, and I did not encounter any failures.
BOB WOODRUFF: (voice-over) Today, Boston and other cities are issuing the Saf-T-Lok to all their officers. Only one major gun maker, Taurus, sells a gun with a built-in lock. A year and a half ago, most gun makers agreed to include cable locks or lock boxes with the guns they sell.
Those locks, which are not built in to the gun, have been available for years. But the problem of accidental shootings continues.
FRANK BROOKS: Are we as people saying that if you can make a gun childproof, you should? I think that's a question it boils down to, and it's a question that people are not willing to face at the moment.
BOB WOODRUFF: (voice-over) But it's a question the gun makers will have to face very soon, as more and more cities sue for answers. Bob Woodruff, ABC News, Washington.
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