Bill to protect gun makers debated

If firearms were outlawed, criminals simply would turn to other weapons to commit violent acts.

On that particular point of the ever-testy gun control debate, fate has given Shanna Kerekes a tragically unique perspective. Seven years ago the father of her oldest child was stabbed to death while trying to repossess a company car from a Las Vegas man. Last October the father of her two youngest children was gunned down when he and an acquaintance broke into the home of a Las Vegas resident.

One lover lost to a hunting knife, the other to a shotgun. Still, Kerekes, 25, scarcely hedges in arguing that more so than other weapons, firearms deserve harsher criticism -- and regulation.

"There's some truth to the argument that you can kill people with other things besides guns. The difference is, you can't stand on a roof and kill someone from a hundred feet away with a knife. Guns are different," she said.

Kerekes framed her opinion in reference to a bill proposed by Assemblyman Don Gustavson, R-Sun Valley, that would create a partial legal shield for the gun industry in Nevada. Assembly Bill 543 would prohibit local governments statewide from suing gun manufacturers and distributors for the lawful design and production of firearms. The initiative also would protect ammunition manufacturers and distributors, as well as gun trade associations.

Under the measure, passed Tuesday by the Assembly and modeled after a similar bill approved by the Georgia Legislature in February, individuals -- and the state -- still could bring lawsuits against gun makers. (Rep. Bob Barr, R-Georgia, has introduced legislation in Congress that would ban cities from suing firearms manufacturers.)

Even so, Kerekes and other supporters of gun control contend the firearms industry should receive no special exemption from liability. They argue that the carnage wrought by firearms -- the United States racks up about 36,000 gun-related deaths a year -- demands more, not less, legal action against manufacturers.

Kerekes felt that way long before the shooting death of her boyfriend, Jason Lamb, 26, under murky circumstances.

Lamb and Rick Tripp, 35, were killed Oct. 25 after illegally entering the home of Tom Gaule, who fended off the intruders before grabbing a shotgun from inside the house. Gaule, 42, shot Lamb in the driveway of his home at 400 Lakehurst Road, then chased Tripp about 500 feet up the street and opened fire again.

Although Gaule faces a voluntary manslaughter charge in Tripp's death, a grand jury in December found no wrongdoing in the shooting of Lamb.

That infuriated Kerekes. She pointed out that Metro Police have said Gaule knew Tripp, and that he owed Tripp an unknown amount of money for helping clean up trash around the Lakehurst house. Kerekes also insisted that Lamb had no idea Tripp planned to stop by Gaule's residence on his way to another destination, and that a stun gun found by police did not belong to Lamb.

Whatever the exact circumstances of the break-in, Kerekes admitted some people -- perhaps most -- regard Gaule's actions as an entirely justifiable example of self-defense. Yet Kerekes doesn't expect sympathy, nor is she seeking to attain victim status. She merely thinks that guns are designed to kill -- and that manufacturers have to own up to the reality.

"I believe in the right to bear arms. I don't want to step on the toes of the Constitution," Kerekes said. "But I think anyone should be able to sue gun makers. If you manufacture guns, you take a certain responsibility -- just like when you have a child, you take a certain responsibility. That's just common sense."

Looking to force gun manufacturers and distributors to accept responsibility for their product, at least six cities -- Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Miami-Dade County, New Orleans and Bridgeport, Conn. -- have sued the industry in the last six months.

The suits resemble recent litigation brought by dozens of states against the tobacco industry that last year netted a $206 billion settlement, with a few crucial distinctions:

* State attorneys general led the charge against Big Tobacco. Mayors are spearheading the effort targeting the gun industry, with a number of private attorneys who helped states slay cigarette companies signing on for the gun litigation.

* Each city, for the moment, has decided to go one-on-one against firearms manufacturers and distributors. Forty-six states, including Nevada, eventually banded together in a class-action lawsuit to battle the tobacco industry.

* The tobacco litigation sought to recoup money for smoking-related health care costs. In the gun lawsuits, pursuit of monetary compensation for gun violence will take a backseat to compelling the industry to agree to additional safety features on firearms.

As many as 60 cities may go after gun manufacturers in the courts by year's end. One that probably won't: Las Vegas. City officials have never so much as discussed suing gun manufacturers, City Attorney Brad Jerbic said.

The same holds true statewide. Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said she has heard no whispers that any city or county in Nevada has considered suing gun manufacturers. Nor has the state, she added.

Both Clark County Commission Chairman Bruce Woodbury and Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Ben Graham said the topic of gun lawsuits has yet to come up. Likewise for Metro, Sheriff Jerry Keller said.

"It's not really a police department issue. It's more of a community-minded issue," he said. "We certainly haven't seen any concerns in our community on this bill at this time."

All of which fuels doubts about whether a gun-happy state such as Nevada really needs a law to ward off an apparently nonexistent threat to the firearms industry.

Gustavson, a member of the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America, said the thrust of his bill is to avoid a replay of what happened in Georgia. There, a lawsuit filed two months ago by the city of Atlanta against 14 firearms manufacturers and three distributors prompted the state Legislature to ram through a bill that spiked any pending gun litigation by cities.

Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, who has vowed to challenge the constitutionality of the new law, initially sparked the city's crusade against gun makers -- a fact noted by Gustavson.

"It's a pre-emptive bill," he said of AB543. "You never know what's going to happen. We're definitely a pro-gun state, but you never know who's going to be elected mayor (in a given city)."

Similar plans

Numerous other states, including Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Texas, Vermont and Wyoming, are weighing similar proposals to limit anti-gun lawsuits. Nevada gun enthusiasts roundly back Gustavson's bill, asserting that firearms manufacturers merit the same protection as the liquor industry.

Ron Montoya owns American Shooters Supply and Gun Club, a Las Vegas store that sells 80 to 100 firearms a month. He likens AB543 to the state's so-called dramshop law that prohibits the victims of drunken drivers from suing taverns, casinos and other alcohol distributors. The legislature has quashed repeated efforts to repeal the statute, most recently in 1995.

Montoya portrayed the lawsuits against gun makers as symptomatic of a litigious society bent on solving every societal problem in the courts. Longer prison sentences for criminals who use guns -- and swifter application of the death penalty -- would accomplish more than suing the gun industry, Montoya said.

"It's so ridiculous that we put so much effort into blaming everyone except the end user. Let's concentrate on the people who've committed crimes. That's who we need to go after: the individual making that choice, not all the gun owners out there who are educated about using guns," he said.

But superseding concerns over who uses guns is how criminals acquire them in the first place. In February a Brooklyn, N.Y., jury found nine gun makers liable for three shootings involving illegally obtained handguns because of the companies' negligent marketing and distribution practices. Jurors awarded $3.95 million in the case to relatives of two New York City homicide victims.

Last November Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley announced his city's $433 million lawsuit against 22 firearms manufacturers, 12 gun shops and four distributors. City officials opted to sue after undercover Chicago police officers were able to purchase 171 guns from suburban firearms dealers. Of the city's 702 homicides last year, 536 involved guns.

Chicago banned handgun ownership in 1982. The city's lawsuit contends that suburban gun shops -- with the full knowledge of Beretta U.S.A. Corp., Colt Manufacturing Co., Glock Inc., Smith & Wesson Corp. and other firearms manufacturers -- were flooding Chicago with illegal guns.

Daley spokesman John Camper summed up the logic behind the city's lawsuit this way: As much as criminals need to be punished, the time has come to crack down on the source of their weapons.

"Getting money out of the suit is much less important than getting (gun makers) to take some responsibility for the product they market and manufacture. Every other industry -- automobile, pharmaceutical, you name it -- is forced to take some responsibility for their product and how they market it. And for some reason the gun industry has been left scot-free," Camper said.

Background check

A person buying a firearm through a licensed gun distributor in Nevada must clear a federally mandated background check. The law prohibits purchase of a gun by a person convicted of a felony, the mentally ill, illegal aliens and convicted drug users and domestic abusers. Those guidelines do not cover firearms purchased through newspaper and magazine ads, gun shows or elsewhere.

Nevada places few qualifications on owning firearms beyond the federal restrictions. No permit, registration or licensing is needed to own a rifle, shotgun or handgun. A permit is required to carry a concealed handgun in Nevada, and state lawmakers are mulling a bill that would allow gun owners to wear concealed firearms into public buildings.

Las Vegas resident Shell Hunt, 33, considers current state and federal gun regulations sufficient to combat gun violence. As he prepared to enter the firing range at American Shooters toting his 9mm semiautomatic handgun, Hunt said the likes of Smith & Wesson and Glock bear no more blame for their product than Coors and Anheuser-Busch.

"It's up to the individual to be responsible. If someone can go out, get drunk, get in a car and kill someone, that person should be responsible. It's the same with guns," Hunt said.

Frank Lourenco, a 55-year-old retiree who owns three shotguns, two hunting rifles and a .45, offered another analogy. He and a friend, Terry Crispelli, were visiting American Shooters to help her prepare for the Corporate Challenge shooting competition.

"It's like suing a car manufacturer if you run a red light," Lourenco said. "It's how the individual uses the product. Guns are a legitimate product. If they're used for criminal purposes, the manufacturer can't be responsible for that," he said.

There are an estimated 190 million to 220 million firearms in the United States, and the country has the highest rate of gun-related deaths -- murders, suicides and accidents -- among the world's 26 richest nations, according to a 1997 federal government report.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the country's rate for gun deaths in 1994 was 14.24 per 100,000 people. Japan had the lowest rate at .05 per 100,000. The report also showed the United States had the highest overall homicide rate among those same countries at 9.85 per 100,000, compared to Japan's rate of .06.

Last year the Clark County coroner's office investigated 150 homicides; 102 were attributed to guns. Of 286 suicides, 171 involved firearms.

High costs

In justifying lawsuits against firearms manufacturers, gun control advocates often cite one other statistic: the country spends upward of $4 billion annually treating gun-related injuries, according to the Physicians for Social Responsibility Violence Prevention Program in Washington, D.C.

The University Medical Center's trauma team treated 287 gunshot victims last year. A UMC spokeswoman said figures were not available on how much the hospital, which receives the majority of Clark County's gunshot victims, spent to treat them.

Given the health care costs attached to gun violence, Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, questioned the prudence of limiting legal action against the firearms industry.

"You don't ever want to preclude anything. If there had been a ban on litigation with tobacco companies, we wouldn't have gotten the money for the health care costs related to smoking," Titus said.

The Legal Action Project, an arm of the Washington, D.C.-based Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, is assisting several cities with their gun lawsuits. Among the goals of the litigation is to prod the firearms industry to include child-safety locks on all guns, something manufacturers historically have resisted to hold down production costs, center spokeswoman Nancy Hwa said.

Legislation such as AB543 would allow manufacturers to continue ducking the safety issue, she added.

"We're not trying to shift the responsibility away from anyone (with the lawsuits)," Hwa said. "But certain parties in the chain have to accept responsibility."

More than a dozen states have child access prevention laws that penalize gun owners who neglect to keep their firearms out of the reach of kids. In Nevada, an adult can be charged with a misdemeanor if a minor younger than 14 gains access to a firearm that has not been securely locked away.

Yet even as they praise such laws, gun industry critics accuse manufacturers and distributors of heedlessly fighting the push for firearms safety.

Long before his city filed its lawsuit in January, Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas derided gun makers' rationale for opposing child-safety measures. Industry officials for years have claimed that safety features introduced by car and drug manufacturers specifically protect the person who purchases the product. Gun locks and other precautionary measures, by contrast, hamper the intended user, they insist.

Penelas countered that child-proof caps on medicine bottles safeguard someone other than the buyer -- as would child-safety locks on guns. Firearms killed 5,285 children in the United States in 1995, the Centers for Disease Control reported.

"(The lawsuit) is not about money. Money won't bring back the lives of those killed by gunfire," Penelas said. "It's about bringing the gun industry to the table to talk about common-sense measures."

Expected passage

Political observers expect AB543 to sail through the Senate as quickly as it did the Assembly, where the measure enjoyed broad bipartisan support. If approved, the bill hardly would represent the first time the state has leashed local governments on legal matters. Cities and counties, for example, cannot adopt stiffer regulations than the state in governing tobacco advertising and sales.

Local government officials remain ambivalent about the prospect of the bill's passage. But the lack of public demand for suing firearms manufacturers tempers whatever distaste they may harbor toward the state for dictating city and county policy on gun litigation.

"In general, we certainly advocate local home rule. We don't want to be restricted by the legislature," Woodbury said. "On the other hand, it's doubtful that we would instigate any lawsuits like that to begin with."

Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones could not be reached for comment. City Councilman Michael McDonald said "it's uncomfortable to have the state come in and tell you how to run your government." Nonetheless, McDonald, who recently retired from Metro after 10 years on the force, considers AB543 "responsible legislation."

Kerekes adamantly disagrees. No matter the public's opinion of Lamb, she remembers him as a devoted family man who loved nothing more than to play with the kids. His death came one month before he planned to propose to Kerekes, leaving her to raise their two children -- 2-month-old Jason Jr. and Shiloh, 2 -- and her 7-year-old daughter, Courtney, from a previous relationship.

Kerekes resists succumbing to self-pity, much as she aches to cave in to her grief some days. Between raising the kids and working 60 hours a week as a clerk at a Las Vegas car dealership, she barely has time to think, let alone cry. But if Kerekes refuses to see herself as a casualty of circumstance -- and while quietly conceding Lamb might've displayed better judgment -- she also scoffs at gun makers' attempts to come off as wholly innocent bystanders.

"What's the purpose of manufacturing a gun like that?" Kerekes said, referring to the shotgun that killed Lamb. "What's the point of that weapon other than to take a human life?

"Everybody has to make a living, but at what price?"

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