WASHINGTON — In a move to force the firearms industry to adopt safer ways of making and selling weapons, the federal government said on Tuesday that housing authorities around the country were planning to file a class-action lawsuit against gun makers. The White House and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have been laying the groundwork in recent months for the suit on behalf of the three million people who live in public housing projects, where... (GunPolicy.org)

The Clinton administration plans for the first time to intervene in litigation against the gun industry, a move to pressure manufacturers to help keep guns out of the hands of criminals and to reduce accidental shootings, officials said yesterday. The decision could dramatically strengthen the hand of numerous cities that have sued or threatened to sue firearms manufacturers, seeking redress for the public costs of gun violence. Federal officials will begin pressing... (GunPolicy.org)

The Clinton administration yesterday threatened a lawsuit against gun manufacturers on behalf of the three million people who live in public housing projects long plagued by gun violence. The threat followed last week's ruling by an Illinois state judge that an innovative private lawsuit against gun manufacturers could proceed, despite heavy industry pressure to kill it. Taken together, these actions provided a positive counterpoint to yet another school shooting... (GunPolicy.org)

Ten years to the day after Marc Lepine used a .223-calibre Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle to murder 14 women at the Ecole Polytechnique, the notorious weapon is readily available in gun stores across Canada. The Ruger Mini-14 is a high-powered rifle suitable for big-city police forces, because the relatively small round it fires at high velocity tends to mushroom on contact. It kills one person at a time. That is the only socially sanctioned use the Mini-14 has. It... (GunPolicy.org)

CHICAGO — A judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit alleging that gun makers' marketing tactics contributed to three Chicago deaths, a decision gun opponents hope is part of a trend. "This is a home run," said Lawrence Rosenthal, a lawyer for the city of Chicago, which is among at least 28 U.S. cities and counties that have filed their own separate lawsuits against gun makers. "We now have a neutral party in a black robe with no ax to grind and this is what she sees... (GunPolicy.org)

WASHINGTON — President Clinton said on Wednesday that a class-action lawsuit his administration has threatened against gun makers would not seek to bankrupt them, but to make guns safer and harder for criminals to buy. He also defended his preparation of the suit against charges he was attempting an end run around a Congress that failed this year to back his requests for tougher gun control laws. The White House said on Wednesday it was organizing a lawsuit against... (GunPolicy.org)

AMSTERDAM — A teenager's gun rampage at a small town Dutch high school sparked calls Wednesday for a nation-wide firearms amnesty and renewed efforts to rein in spiraling violence on the street. A nation which prides itself on its relatively high degree of social equality and consensus, the Dutch self-image has been rocked in recent years by several fatal and highly publicized cases of street violence, including the killing of two teenage girls in a revenge attack on... (GunPolicy.org)

BOSTON — The gun industry fired back at the White House on Wednesday, calling its plan to organize a lawsuit against weapon makers for irresponsible sales and marketing practices crazy and accusing the Clinton administration of blackmail. Industry officials said it was absurd for the government, which is responsible for regulating gun sales and enforcing existing gun laws, to sue them and accused federal officials of using a bludgeon to beat the industry into... (GunPolicy.org)