The first comprehensive analysis of recent lawsuits against gun makers

Look Inside

  • Table of Contents | PDF | HTML |
  • Front Matter | PDF |
  • Acknowledgments | PDF |
  • Introduction: An Overview of Lawsuits against the Gun Industry by Timothy D. Lytton
    | PDF | HTML |
  • Chapter 1: A Public Health Perspective on Gun Violence Prevention by Julie Samia Mair, Stephen Teret, and Shannon Frattaroli
    | PDF | HTML |
  • Chapter 2: The Limited Importance of Gun Control from a Criminological Perspective by Don B. Kates
    | PDF | HTML |
  • Chapter 3: The American Gun Industry: Designing and Marketing Increasingly Lethal Weapons by Tom Diaz
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  • Chapter 4: A Cultural Critique of Gun Litigation by Dan M. Kahan, Donald Braman, and John Gastil
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  • Chapter 5: Private Lawyers, Public Lawsuits: Plaintiffs' Attorneys in Municipal Gun Litigation by Howard M. Erichson
    | PDF | HTML |
  • Chapter 6: The NRA, the Brady Campaign, and the Politics of Gun Litigation by Timothy D. Lytton
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  • Chapter 7: Gun Litigation in the Mass Tort Context by Richard A. Nagareda
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  • Chapter 8: Comparing Tobacco and Gun Litigation by Stephen D. Sugarman
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  • Chapter 9: Why Regulating Guns through Litigation Won't Work by Peter H. Schuck
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  • Chapter 10: The Complementary Role of Tort Litigation in Regulating the Gun Industry by Timothy D. Lytton
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  • Chapter 11: Stubborn Information Problems and the Regulatory Benefits of Gun Litigation by Wendy Wagner
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  • Chapter 12: Liability Insurance and the Regulation of Firearms by Tom Baker and Thomas O. Farrish
    | PDF | HTML |
  • Chapter 13: Gun Litigation and the Constitution by Brannon P. Denning
    | PDF | HTML |
  • Afterword: Federal Gun Industry Immunity Legislation by Timothy D. Lytton | PDF | HTML |
  • Notes | PDF |
  • Contributors | PDF |
  • Table of Cases | PDF |
  • Index | PDF |

Copyright © 2005 and 2007, University of Michigan. All rights reserved.

Description

"Mass tort litigation against the gun industry, with its practical weaknesses, successes, and goals, provides the framework for this collection of thoughtful essays by leading social scientists, lawyers, and academics. . . . These informed analyses reveal the complexities that make the debate so difficult to resolve. . . . Suing the Gun Industry masterfully reveals the many details contributing to the intractability of the gun debate."
-New York Law Journal

"Second Amendment advocate or gun-control fanatic, all Americans who care about freedom need to read Suing the Gun Industry."
-Bob Barr, Member of Congress, 1995-2003, and Twenty-First Century Liberties Chair for Freedom and Privacy, American Conservative Union

"The source for anyone interested in a balanced analysis of the lawsuits against the gun industry."
-David Hemenway, Professor of Health Policy & Director, Harvard Injury Control Research Center Harvard School of Public Health Health Policy and Management Department, author of Private Guns, Public Health

"Highly readable, comprehensive, well-balanced. It contains everything you need to know, and on all sides, about the wave of lawsuits against U.S. gun manufacturers."
-James B. Jacobs, Warren E. Burger Professor of Law and author of Can Gun Control Work?

"In Suing the Gun Industry, Timothy Lytton has assembled some of the leading scholars and advocates, both pro and con, to analyze this fascinating effort to circumvent the well-known political obstacles to more effective gun control. This fine book offers a briefing on both the substance and the legal process of this wave of lawsuits, together with a better understanding of the future prospects for this type of litigation vis-à-vis other industries."
-Philip J. Cook, Duke University

"An interesting collection, generally representing the center of the gun-control debate, with considerable variation in focus, objectivity, and political realism."
-Paul Blackman, retired pro-gun criminologist and advocate

Gun litigation deserves a closer look amid the lessons learned from decades of legal action against the makers of asbestos, Agent Orange, silicone breast implants, and tobacco products, among others.

Suing the Gun Industry collects the diverse and often conflicting opinions of an outstanding cast of specialists in law, public health, public policy, and criminology and distills them into a complete picture of the intricacies of gun litigation and its repercussions for gun control.

Using multiple perspectives, Suing the Gun Industry scrutinizes legal action against the gun industry. Such a broad approach highlights the role of this litigation within two larger controversies: one over government efforts to reduce gun violence, and the other over the use of mass torts to regulate unpopular industries.

Readers will find Suing the Gun Industry a timely and accessible picture of these complex and controversial issues.

Contributors:
Tom Baker
Donald Braman
Brannon P. Denning
Tom Diaz
Howard M. Erichson
Thomas O. Farrish
Shannon Frattaroli
John Gastil
Dan M. Kahan
Don B. Kates
Timothy D. Lytton
Julie Samia Mair
Richard A. Nagareda
Peter H. Schuck
Stephen D. Sugarman
Stephen Teret
Wendy Wagner

Timothy D. Lytton is Professor of Law at Albany Law School, where he teaches torts, alternative dispute resolution, and constitutional law. His work has been cited in leading gun cases by the New York Court of Appeals, the California Supreme Court, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.