Atlanta, one of the first cities to try to jump on the money train for lawsuits against gun manufacturers, had it's parade rained on by the new governor, Roy Barnes. (Amazingly, he's a Democrat)
Within days of taking office, Mr. Barnes sponsored and pushed through legislation disallowing municipalities and counties from instituting such law suits without prior approval from the state legislature. He said, in effect, that such lawsuits affected the entire state and not just individual municipalities and as such overreached the authority of city and county authorities. He also said, bluntly that "such lawsuits against gun manufacturers were groundless, bordering on frivolous" and "sought merely to capitalize on an atmosphere of exhorting big business for money that has been created in the wake of a rash of law suits against every industry, from tobacco to fast food". (Once again, "This guy's a Democrat?")
Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell, who instigated the lawsuit against gun manufacturers was apoplectic, but after a day of posturing over the inhumanity of the whole thing, he shut his mouth. I believe Roy Barnes let him know that it was the office of the governor that stood between Campbell and the the loss of control over Atlanta's multi-billion dollar cash cow, Hartsfield International Airport, to the state. That airport has turned four generations of Atlanta mayors and their cronies into millionaires. Campbell wasn't letting his greed for a possible windfall from the gun manufacturers get in the way of the sure thing he and his pals have at the airport.
The irony of this whole thing was, Campbell instituted his lawsuit the week before the S.H.O.T. Show, the world's largest convention and business meeting for the shooting industry opened in Atlanta. This one convention pumped almost $50,000,000.00 into the local economy and was tenatively scheduled to return to Atlanta every third year, for the next fifteen years. Needless to say, the promoters of this event cancelled any pending association with Atlanta in a very public way, by placing a full page notice in the morning and evening papers, letting readers know exactly how much money their mayor had just cost them.
Campbell knew exactly what was at stake for the city when he instigated the lawsuit. His concern was that monies from the convention would pass directly into the local economy rather than funnelling through the sticky fingers of the Atlanta city government where fifty cents of every dollar finds it's way into the bank accounts of the Atlanta power elite through "construction contracts" or "consultation fees". Known locally as the Maynard Mafia, in honor of former mayor Maynard Jackson, who is Campbell's mentor and is for all intents and purposes still in control of the city, this city administration operates with a openess about it's corruption that hasn't been seen since Boss Tweed and the Tammany Hall gang.
Before one more lawsuit is initiated against anybody by any level of government, all citizens need to demand an accounting for the tens of billions of dollars that has already been awarded to various government entities over the last three years for their lawsuits against the tobacco industry. They will find that nary a dollar has been allocated to help those who have suffered from tobacco use or into programs to help stop people from becoming addicted in the first place . Instead it has been diverted into thousands of different pork barrel projects, eventually destined for the bank accounts of lawyers and politicians who view those billions of dollars as their own personal reward in return for "sevices rendered".
"The first thing we shall do is kill all the lawyers".- William Shakespeare
"The next thing we do is cut them down and use the same gallows for the politicians". - Me. |
