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New York City's Suit Against Gun Dealers Proceeds
New York Law Journal
August 16, 2007
A lawsuit by New York City charging 15 out-of-state gun retailers with facilitating the illegal sale of guns in the city will go forward following a Brooklyn federal judge's denial of defendants' motion to dismiss on personal jurisdiction grounds.
In a decision that stretched to exactly 100 pages, Eastern District of New York Judge Jack B. Weinstein set out in extensive detail the statistics supporting the city's claim that the defendants "de facto serve" the New York market "through regular sales to straw purchasers, through multiple gun sales, or through internet sales."
Weinstein's decision to allow the case to proceed turned on the city's arguments regarding the inordinate number of crimes committed by guns emanating from the defendants' stores. He set a Jan. 7, 2008, trial date.
The city's prima facie case can be established inferentially through "allegations that there have been crimes committed in New York with the defendants' guns; that there are a significant number of traces linked to criminal investigations in New York that are attributable to the defendants' conduct; and that defendants' distribution practices have a substantial effect on crime in New York," Weinstein held in City of New York v. A-1 Jewelry & Pawn, 06CV2233. "The city's complaint rests on such allegations ... Those allegations, as supplemented with extensive evidence, provide more than sufficient basis for finding each moving defendant subject to New York long-arm jurisdiction."
The case, filed in May 2006 against 15 gun retailers in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia, is the companion case to a second action against 12 other retailers, City of New York v. Bob Moates Sport Shop, 06CV6504.
During its investigation, the city assembled data documenting the regular arrival of illegally possessed guns into New York City that had been sold by defendants in other states, Weinstein said.
"The relevant criteria of inappropriate retail sales practices distinguish defendants from what the City asserts are the 99.4 percent of retail gun dealers in the United States who conduct their business responsibly."
As widely reported, the city sent undercover investigators to each of the defendants' stores to assess their willingness to enter into "straw" purchases, where the gun is clearly being purchased by a proxy buyer.
Overall, 12 of the 27 defendants have settled with the city, agreeing to allow their sales practices to be monitored for three years and to attend training on how to avoid practices that may lead to the illegal use of guns in New York City.
Here, six of the defendants contested the city's action on personal jurisdiction grounds. They argued, among other defenses, that their staffs abided by all state and federal laws. The defendants also contended that "they had no reason to expect that their sales of handguns outside of New York would produce lethal consequences in New York," according to the decision.
However, Weinstein said the central issue for the present motion was whether the defendants "de facto serve an out-of-state market, including New York, through their illegal sales practices."
The judge concluded that the city's "evidence confirms that moving defendants' wares regularly, and rapidly, arrive in New York via criminal channels ... [T]he evidence shows repeated illegal sales of firearms in a manner that has direct consequences in New York."
The city was represented by Eric Proshansky, deputy chief of the Law Department's affirmative litigation division, and Kenneth Taber of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.
"One of the things the judge seems to say in the decision is that the city has gone very far in proving its case already," Mr. Proshansky said Wednesday.
"We are delighted that Judge Weinstein was able to sift through the mountain of evidence that we assembled for him and reach the appropriate conclusion," said Taber. "This is a case that cries out for the exercise of [personal] jurisdiction by a New York court."
In a statement, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that the ruling was "a significant victory in the city's campaign against illegal guns." He said he was "particularly pleased" the judge set a trial date "so we can prove that following common sense sales practices that comply with federal law -- and that don't interfere with anyone's Constitutional rights -- can make New Yorkers safer."
John Renzulli of the Renzulli Law Firm represented the defendants. He could not be reached for comment.
