{"id":1783595,"date":"2022-12-22T06:01:04","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T11:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1783595"},"modified":"2022-12-22T07:33:56","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T12:33:56","slug":"buffalo-city-sues-firearms-makers-claiming-they-are-fueling-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/buffalo-city-sues-firearms-makers-claiming-they-are-fueling-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo City Sues Firearms Makers, Claiming They Are Fueling Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbuffalo-city-sues-firearms-makers-claiming-they-are-fueling-violence%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1783595&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The city of Buffalo, New York, has filed a lawsuit in state court against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-firearms\">firearms<\/a> manufacturers and distributors, as well as ghost firearms companies, for their alleged\u00a0fueling of violence.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Byron Brown <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buffalony.gov\/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1185\">announced<\/a> the lawsuit on Dec. 20, which he said was the first of its kind. It was filed in\u00a0state Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMembers of our community have suffered too much and for too long from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-gun-violence\">gun violence<\/a>. We must do everything we can to decrease gun violence. Enabling the possession of illegal guns destroys lives and deeply effects our neighborhoods, especially in Black and Brown communities. I am proud to stand up to the gun industry and fight for the safety of people living, working, and visiting the City of Buffalo,\u201d said Brown in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit lists defendants including Smith &#038; Wesson Brands Inc., Beretta USA Corp., Bushmaster Firearms Industries Inc., Colt\u2019s Manufacturing Co. LLC, and Glock Inc., as well as several ghost gun manufacturers including\u00a0Polymer 80 and Arm or Ally.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4812248\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/10\/21\/rifles-on-display-1200x827.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-medium wp-image-4812248\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/rifles-on-display-600x413-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"413\"   style=\"display:none\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4812248\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/rifles-on-display-600x413-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"413\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Guns in New York in a file image. (Timothy A. Clary\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<h2>Gun Makers Accused of Being a \u2018Public Nuisance\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>The complaint (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/buffalo-guns-public-nuisance-erie-county-supreme.pdf\">pdf<\/a>) claims that the conduct of gun manufacturers and distributors has created,\u00a0contributed to, and maintained the \u201cpublic nuisance\u201d of unlawful possession, transportation, and disposition of firearms and their use in crimes.<\/p>\n<p>This, the lawsuit claims, is being done through marketing\u00a0that emphasizes\u00a0the high capacity and ease of concealing their products, which plaintiffs say \u201cappeals to prospective purchasers with criminal intent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is also being done by the makers\u00a0deliberately supplying more guns than needed in the legitimate market in order to induce sales,\u00a0not training dealers to avoid straw sales and other illegal transactions, and\u00a0failing to\u00a0terminate contracts with distributors who sell to dealers with disproportionately high volumes of guns traced to crime scenes, the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit seeks\u00a0compensatory damages and asks the court to direct the gun makers and distributors to\u00a0\u201cendow an abatement fund with sufficient capital to eliminate the public nuisance they are responsible for creating, exacerbating, and\/or perpetuating.\u201d It also seeks\u00a0punitive damages.<\/p>\n<p>Brown, in announcing the lawsuit on Tuesday, pointed to rising violence\u00a0in Buffalo and across the country, noting that despite the city taking actions to curb such violence, officials are still seeing illegally possessed guns getting into the wrong hands.<\/p>\n<h2>Violence in Buffalo on the Rise<\/h2>\n<p>According to the mayor\u2019s office, violence in Buffalo increased in 2020 and has continued to do so through 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n<p>During the initial year of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 355 deaths or injuries from shootings in Buffalo, according to the mayor, with that figure rising in the first two months of 2021 by more than 140 percent compared to the same period a year prior. More recently, 10 people were killed and three were wounded in a mass shooting at the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo.<\/p>\n<p>Bushmaster said in a statement that it had not yet\u00a0fully reviewed the lawsuit but that the claims made within it appeared to be \u201cfalse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Epoch Times has contacted the other companies listed in the lawsuit for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo\u2019s lawsuit is the first of its kind under a\u00a02021 New York law that allows lawsuits against gun manufacturers and sellers for creating a \u201cpublic nuisance\u201d through their business practices.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have state public nuisance laws that we are empowered to enforce, and I intend on doing all that I can as Mayor to protect people and prevent the loss of lives resulting from gun violence. The conduct of certain gun manufacturers has unreasonably interfered with the public\u2019s right to use open space free from fear,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n<p>New York State Attorney General Letitia James joined similar litigation (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/glock-complaint.pdf\">pdf)<\/a> in August against\u00a0Glock following a shooting on the\u00a0New York City subway.<\/p>\n<p><em>Reuters contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-katabella-roberts\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ttl7dayERL_WEB_KatabellaRoberts.jpg\" alt=\"Katabella Roberts\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p>Katabella Roberts is a news writer for The Epoch Times, focusing primarily on the United States, world, and business news.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The city of Buffalo, New York, has filed a lawsuit in state court against firearms manufacturers and distributors, as well as ghost firearms companies, for their alleged\u00a0fueling of violence.Mayor Byron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1783598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[6962,10905,5458,9238,5269,10035,9473,11112,4759,3819,5178,4510,3699],"class_list":["post-1783595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-the","tag-are","tag-bongino","tag-buffalo","tag-city","tag-claiming","tag-firearms","tag-fueling","tag-makers","tag-report","tag-sues","tag-they","tag-violence"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1783595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1783598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1783595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1783595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1783595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}