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City of Chicago v. Beretta U.S.A. Corp.11/18/2004
des and other crimes involving handguns. Relying on these statistics, they assert that the "widespread availability and use of firearms is a national problem." They claim, further, that " bsent effective enforcement and prosecution of gun control laws, firearms are readily available to anyone who wishes to use them." The ready availability of guns also contributes to suicides and accidental shootings, particularly of children. These dangers, according to the plaintiffs, "were long ago, are today, and will continue to be specifically known to defendants."
Plaintiffs also cite provisions of the city's Municipal Code that place strict requirements and prohibitions on the possession, use, and transfer of firearms in Chicago and assert that such ordinances can be effective only if the "residents of the jurisdiction imposing the restriction cannot legally purchase those firearms elsewhere and bring them back into the jurisdiction." The State of Illinois also regulates the possession, use, and transfer of firearms. However, according to the complaint, "data from recovered firearms and the undercover work of the Chicago Police Department reflect numerous and systematic violations" of these ordinances and statutes. Despite strict gun control laws intended to protect the citizens of Chicago, there are "thousands of illegal firearms" in the city and more are brought into the city every year. Thus, plaintiffs assert, the "existence of illegal firearms in the City of Chicago constitutes a public nuisance because it violates ordinances and laws designed to protect the public from a threat to its health, welfare and safety," and because the existence of readily available firearms "creates an unreasonable and significant interference" with public safety.
The second amended complaint further alleges that all three categories of defendants are put on notice of the "crime-facilitating consequences of their conduct," by virtue of the process used by the United States Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to trace firearms recovered by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. According to the complaint, defendants "know that only firearms that have been used in connection with crimes can be the subject of traces." On the basis of trace data from March 26, 1988, to December 31, 1998, involving 858,902 guns traced nationwide, 20 of the 22 manufacturer defendants "account for approximately 48.3% of those crime guns, even though they comprise only 2.8% of the 716 manufacturers listed in the national trace database." The data provided, however, do not reveal the market shares of these manufacturers.
With regard to gun dealers, plaintiffs offer more recent data from the ATF revealing that 1.2% of dealers nationwide account for 57% of traced firearms. Plaintiffs also rely on a congressional study of ATF data released in December 1999, which found that "an extraordinary proportion of crime guns bought from `high crime' gun dealers were probably straw purchased" and that "one-third of these crime guns were recovered in connection with a crime within just one year of its purchase, and half were traced to crimes within two years of their purchase."
Plaintiffs' specific allegation against the named dealer defendants is that they "sell firearms even when they know or should know that the firearms will be used or possessed illegally in Chicago." This allegation is supported by assertions that dealers know some of their customers are residents of Chicago and that it is illegal for those customers to use or possess these weapons in the city; that dealers make sales even when the words or behavior of the buyers indicate an intention to use the weapon illegally; that dealers sell handguns des
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