N.Y. FILES SUITS TARGETING A FLOOD OF ‘GHOST GUNS’
10 companies are accused of illegally selling gun parts
New York officials on Wednesday filed two lawsuits seeking to halt the proliferation of untraceable firearms known as ghost guns under a new state law intended to hold the gun industry accountable for shootings.
The lawsuits, one filed by the office of the state attorney general, Letitia James, and the other by New York City, accuse 10 out-of-state companies of illegally selling tens of thousands of gun parts over the last five years to buyers in New York who used them to assemble handguns and assault-style weapons. Through the sales, those companies recklessly fueled a gun violence crisis across the state, the suits charge.
Along with money damages and restitution, the lawsuits, which are modeled after litigation against the pharmaceutical industry over the opioid crisis, seek to force the companies to turn over profits from ghost gun sales to fund gun violence prevention in New York.
“We’re grappling with a public safety crisis that has claimed far too many lives,” James said at a news conference Wednesday in Manhattan. “Increasingly, ghost guns are to blame for the destruction.”
The lawsuits, the first brought by government officials under a public nuisance law passed last year, open a new chapter in efforts led by Democrats to crack down on firearms companies amid heightened gun violence, despite opposition from the industry and its Republican allies.
They were filed six days after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority struck down a New York law requiring gun owners to show a special need to carry guns in public, a decision that gun safety advocates predicted would lead to more violence.
The court’s ruling came as New York was contending with a sharp rise in gun violence during the pandemic, punctuated this year by several mass shootings. Ghost guns have been used in at least two fatal shootings in New York City, officials said, including one in April that left Angellyh Yambo, 16, dead and two other teenagers injured as they walked home from school in the Bronx.
“We will not stand by while illegal operators flout the law, endanger our communities and kill our young people,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the news conference. “We will make our voices heard and use the court system to stop this plague on our city.”
Since 2005, a federal law has shielded gun manufacturers from most lawsuits seeking to hold them responsible for shootings. But the law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, contains an exception for cases in which the seller knowingly violates statutes regulating the sale or marketing of firearms. Families of some of the victims of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., invoked the exception in a suit against Remington Arms, the maker of a weapon used in the attack, reaching a $73 million settlement earlier this year.
New York lawmakers took advantage of the same exception to create a path for those affected by gun violence to sue manufacturers, distributors and retailers for damages. The law classifies the improper and illegal sale of firearms as a public nuisance.
Three states — California, Delaware and New Jersey — are considering or have passed measures modeled after New York’s law.