Gun Talks Stall as Industry Shuns Clinton
Talks aimed at settling the wave of anti-gun lawsuits by major cities have hit a snag because handgun manufacturers are refusing to admit Clinton administration officials to the negotiations.
The White House announcement last month that it would throw its weight behind the cities and join them at the bargaining table had been widely seen as boosting chances for a settlement. Cities and counties involved in the litigation had welcomed the increase in their leverage, and industry officials said White House participation might improve prospects for an agreement.
But a meeting scheduled here for Friday, which was to be the first negotiating session attended by administration officials, was called off early this week when industry negotiators, in a shift in strategy, told the cities they would not show up if the White House took part. The cities then balked at resuming talks on Friday by themselves.
“Those are the terms,” an official for one city involved in the talks said of White House involvement. “They [the industry] may be pursuing a divide-and-conquer strategy,” but “we believe we are stronger if unified.”
“We’ve got a few manufacturers who are standing in the way of making progress,” said Los Angeles City Attorney James Hahn, who filed one of the suits.
“It’s unfortunate that a few hard-line voices in the industry are delaying this effort and playing politics,” said Bruce Reed, President Clinton’s domestic policy advisor.
The announcement of a White House alliance with the cities had been coupled with the threat by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help public housing authorities plagued by gun violence to file another big lawsuit if settlement talks weren’t productive.
It later emerged that few of the nation’s 3,400 public housing authorities had agreed to join in. Other housing authorities since have questioned the need for the suit and voiced frustration at not being consulted in advance.
Many in the firearms industry have criticized the White House move as election-year politics, and the industry has responded in kind. Pinning their hopes on a Republican victory in November’s presidential and congressional elections, industry officials do not want the Clinton administration to be able to take credit should a peace accord be reached.
The industry’s strong embrace of the GOP had been clearly evident this week at the annual SHOT (Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade) show, a giant trade fair in Las Vegas that has attracted 30,000 people, including makers and retailers of all manner of guns and ammo, accessories and apparel.
At a “state of the industry” briefing Monday night, Robert Delfay, executive director of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which sponsors the show and has led gun manufacturers in settlement talks, blasted away at White House officials, vowing not to “allow the most anti-gun administration in history to bully our industry.”
He called on all members of the firearms industry to support a new political action committee that he said will become heavily involved in the upcoming elections.
“The stakes could not be higher,” Delfay said. “The next president could appoint up to five Supreme Court justices, who could decide the future of the 2nd Amendment. A Democratic House and Senate would blaze through a myriad of gun-control measures that have been stymied to date.”
Keynote speaker Alan Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, echoed the theme. “You will not hear any gun-control cry from George Bush or John McCain,” Simpson said, “so remember that when you waddle off to the polls, for gosh sakes.”
Robert Ricker, an industry consultant who represents a new group of large firearms dealers that held its organizational meeting here Tuesday, said the National Rifle Assn. had had much to do with the hard-line stance. “The NRA is adamant that they won’t deal with this president, and the NRA carries a lot of clout,” Ricker said.
It was not immediately clear if gun makers were unanimous about excluding the White House from the talks. Some firms, such as Smith & Wesson and Colt’s Manufacturing Co., have been seen as particularly open to a deal, while others, such as Sturm, Ruger & Co., are thought to be more unyielding and inclined to fight in court.
For their part, the cities also have not been of one mind. Chicago, for example, has not taken part in settlement talks, preferring to take its chances in court.
New Orleans filed the first suit 15 months ago, and 28 cities and urban counties, including Los Angeles city and county, Inglewood, San Francisco and Sacramento, have joined the fray.
They are trying to force manufacturers to add safety features to guns aimed at preventing accidental shootings and the firings of guns by anyone but their owners. They are also demanding that manufacturers monitor the sales practices of dealers and cut off supplies to those failing to take steps to reduce access to guns by juveniles and crooks.
So far, the industry has had the best of pretrial skirmishes. Four courts have ruled on dismissal motions and three cases--those of Cincinnati, Miami and Bridgeport, Conn.--have been thrown out. An Atlanta judge refused to dismiss that city’s case.
Stung by criticism that it has done too little to enforce gun-control laws, the administration on Tuesday unveiled a plan to add 500 agents and inspectors to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The plan, which requires congressional approval, also calls for hiring 1,000 more federal, state and local prosecutors to focus on gun crimes.
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* GUN CONTROLS
President Clinton proposes to crack down on illegal firearms and improve handgun safety. A8
