By John R. Lott Jr., a fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. Only 16 percent of Americans favor banning handguns and only a fraction of those people favor banning rifles. Yet, if Mayor Richard Daley has his way the opinions of the vast majority will not matter. The lawsuits that U.S. city mayors are threatening against gunmakers are using the courts to end run the legislative process and the legal system. The goal is not to win these weak cases in court but to simply bankrupt legitimate companies through massive legal costs.
Governments have the option of regulating or taxing a product with a perceived problem.
But the Illinois legislature decided against more controls. Daley now wants the courts to punish law-abiding manufacturers for past sales that complied with Illinois law. According to the lawsuit, undercover police officers posing as gang members were able to illegally purchase weapons. If that's so, criminal penalties already exist. But that's not what this lawsuit is about.