News Release
Second Amendment Foundation
12500 NE 10th Place
Bellevue, WA 98005
(425) 454-7012 • FAX (425) 451-3959 • www.saf.org

For Immediate Release 10/10/01
Contact: Alan Gottlieb

SAF HAILS SUPREME COURT ACTION ON ANTI-GUN NEW ORLEANS LAWSUIT

BELLEVUE, WA. - The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) hailed the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that it would not review the Louisiana State Supreme Court's dismissal of a lawsuit against the gun industry by the City of New Orleans.

SAF founder Alan Gottlieb stated, "The Louisiana Supreme Court's ruling was a victory for firearms owners and gun makers. The Supreme Court's decision to not review the case was a victory for the rule of law."

The High Court declined to review, without comment or dissent, the Louisiana Supreme Court's earlier decision that upheld the constitutionality of a state law that retroactively prohibited the City of New Orleans and Mayor Marc Morial from suing the gun industry. In 1998 New Orleans became the first city to sue gun manufacturers in an attempt to hold industry liable for gun violence in their jurisdictions.

"The Supreme Court sounded the death knell for the New Orleans lawsuit," Gottlieb said. "This, and similar lawsuits, were never designed to stop gun violence or even help crime victims. They were meant only to grab headlines, blackmail gun makers and bankrupt a perfectly legal industry in the name of political correctness, at the ultimate expense of the individual citizens' Second Amendment rights."

It was in reaction to the spate of anti-gun municipal legal actions that SAF filed its own lawsuit, against Morial and other individual mayors, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, in 1999. That lawsuit is still working through preliminary stages in the courts. SAF took the action to protect the citizens' right to bear arms, by thwarting the attempts of anti-gun politicians to destroy the American firearms industry.

SAF Public Affairs Director Dave LaCourse summed it up best: "The High Court decided not to waste its time on an issue already decided by the Louisiana Supreme Court. That, along with a string of state court rejections of these lawsuits, says a great deal about the veracity of this entire political campaign. And that's essentially what these lawsuits have been all along, a politically-motivated effort to blame gun makers for the inability of the city administrations, themselves, to effectively fight crime.

"The time has arrived," said LaCourse, "for taxpayers in New Orleans, and perhaps the 17 other cities that have lost similar actions, to demand an explanation from their elected leaders about why millions of tax dollars have been spent to pursue these frivolous lawsuits. That money could have been used to enhance police services and prosecute criminals. Instead of putting gun makers out of business, maybe it's time to put these politicians out of work."

The Second Amendment Foundation is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the gun control debate and its consequences. SAF previously has funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles, New Haven, CT, and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners. Current projects include a damage action lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers, an amicus brief in the Emerson case holding that the Second Amendment is an individual right and a lawsuit against the Clinton gun and magazine ban.

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