Where There's Smoke...

By ADAM COHEN

Until last week, Steven Fox was just another gun-violence victim with a depressingly familiar story. He was a high school freshman hanging out on a New York City street corner when a friend's pistol went off, sending a bullet into Fox's head. What sets Fox apart is that he went on to testify--with the bullet still lodged in his brain--in a landmark lawsuit against gunmakers. Last week a Brooklyn jury handed Fox a $500,000 award that has hit the gun industry with the force of a TEC-9 assault weapon. In a decision that could put gunmakers in the same kind of legal jeopardy as Big Tobacco, the jury found 15 companies engaged in "negligent distribution" of guns and ordered three to pay Fox for his injuries. Critics say the suit will open the floodgates to similar suits across the U.S.

The Brooklyn case was built on an innovative theory. It argued that gunmakers should pay for injuries from illegally obtained guns because their distribution practices let guns fall into the hands of criminals. The suit exposed a netherworld of gun trafficking, including the "straw buyers," who resell guns to minors and convicted felons, and the "iron pipeline" of illegal guns that flows from states with lax gun laws, like Georgia, to states with tough ones, like New York.

But the industry was also declaring victory. Of the 25 gunmakers sued, 10 were cleared. And the jury awarded nothing to six other plaintiffs, all of them relatives of people killed by guns. "It's a defense verdict," insists Anne Kimball, a lawyer for three of the gunmakers. "For them to have labored for four years and to have no damages in six of the seven cases and only $500,000 in the seventh is not a plaintiffs' win." The defendants have asked the trial judge to set aside the verdict. Failing that, they say, they'll win on appeal. The gun industry insists the jury got it wrong. "What we're talking about here are criminal acts, illegal sales and murders done with guns," says Kimball. Criminals bear the blame, she says, not gunmakers.

How much litigation is likely to result from the verdict? Chicago, New Orleans, Atlanta and Miami have already filed suits against gunmakers, seeking compensation for medical and law-enforcement costs due to gun violence. And Philadelphia, Boston and Los Angeles are considering jumping in. But the gun lobby has begun fighting back. Georgia's legislature passed a bill last week to block Atlanta's lawsuit, and Louisiana Governor Mike Foster is backing a similar law to stop New Orleans'. But the gun lobby may not have the muscle to get such laws passed in other states. In fact, states may also start to sue, as they did against the tobacco companies. And after the Brooklyn verdict, individual gun victims have more reason than ever to file claims.

Some legal experts say the case could push the industry into a collective settlement like the tobacco industry's. Gunmakers could be forced to pay for past harm and alter their marketing practices to win immunity from future suits. It would be a major defeat for the industry. But if a few more courts follow the Brooklyn verdict, victims of gun violence may be going into court with all the firepower.