Gun Firms Drop Suit on Firearm Sales

Seven gun makers and a firearm group dropped their lawsuit against the Department of Housing and Urban Development and 39 other government officials and municipalities because of the incoming Republican administration. The suit was filed over a plan to give preferential treatment to Smith & Wesson when buying guns for law enforcement agencies after the gun maker agreed to install locks on its weapons and block sales at gun shows without background checks. “It is clear that the election of George W. Bush changes the dynamic regarding this pattern of government abuse,” said Robert T. Delfay, head of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a Connecticut-based firearms industry group.