Another Reckless Lawsuit Gone

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported on Wednesday, April 30, that the lead attorney in the City of Cincinnati’s reckless lawsuit against law-abiding gun makers advised the Cincinnati City Council to drop its case. The Enquirer reported that attorney Stanley Chesley told the City Council it should "concede defeat and drop the case," as "he could not justify moving forward with the ... lawsuit...." The following day, the City Council followed that advice and voted unanimously to drop the suit. The Brady Center/HCI, which also worked on the suit on behalf of the City Council, was merely "disappointed" with the advice from Chesney, according to the article.

Of course, "disappointed" may be a bit of an understatement. The gun-ban lobby once hailed a decision by the Ohio Supreme Court that merely allowed the Cincinnati suit to continue as the "greatest victory yet against the gun industry." Perhaps HCI needs to stop making such hyperbolic statements, as it seems to be the litigious kiss of death. In 1999, HCI called an appellate ruling in a California reckless lawsuit a "historic victory" that would have "far-reaching implications" for similar suits. That case, however, was thrown out two years later by the California Supreme Court.

Also in 1999, a New York jury in another reckless lawsuit gave proponents of this abuse of the judicial system fleeting success, siding partially with HCI’s agenda when it handed down a mixed verdict against some gun makers involved in the suit. The gun-ban lobby called the jury verdict "a stinging and unexpected defeat" for gun owners only to see it thrown out on appeal by both the New York Court of Appeals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.