Firearms manufacturers and sellers cannot be held liable for criminal misuse of their products, a federal appeals court panel ruled Monday in a case stemming from a white supremacist’s 1999 shooting rampage at a Jewish community summer camp in Granada Hills.
The suit brought by the mother of a man fatally shot by Buford O. Furrow Jr. and the families of five others wounded — including three preschool children — sought to hold Georgia-based Glock Inc., dealer RSR Wholesale Guns Seattle and a Chinese manufacturer liable for negligence.
In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel upheld the constitutionality of a 2005 federal law that retroactively shielded gun makers and distributors from responsibility for criminal acts involving properly functioning weapons.
Furrow, a follower of the racist Aryan Nations, unleashed a barrage of semiautomatic weapons fire at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills on Aug. 10, 1999, wounding an adult, a teenager and three children ages 4 to 6. Later in the day, he shot and killed Chatsworth letter carrier Joseph S. Ileto.
Furrow pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty and is serving five life terms in prison.
The victims’ suit against the gun providers was dismissed in 2002 for failure to state a claim under California law. A year later, a 9th Circuit panel reversed that District Court decision and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review it, clearing the way for trial of the gun makers and sellers.
Meanwhile, Congress passed the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, shielding suppliers from such suits and ordering dismissal of pending claims.
Monday’s ruling asserted that the law doesn’t violate constitutional protections of due process and separation of powers.
Source/Full Story: Los Angeles Times
Excerpt follows, read the full story at the Source: The Courier-Journal
…In 1996, Hall, a 350-pound tattooed biker, was arrested near Dayton, Ohio, on a marijuana charge, he said.
Burkey, who was an FBI special agent, began using Hall as a criminal informant.
But when Burkey was assigned in early 1997 to a domestic-terrorism unit tracking the Aryan Nations, it turned out that Hall had a connection to members of the Outlaws motorcycle gang who they associated with, Burkey wrote in his book.
“I didn’t even know the Aryan Nations existed,” Hall said.
To avoid prison, Hall agreed to work his way into the group, eventually becoming a trusted associate of leaders of the Ohio Aryan Nations.
“I was asked to become a member by Ray Redfeairn himself,” he said, referring to the man who took over the Aryan Nations in 2001, before dying in 2003. Photos in his book show Hall giving Nazi salutes and standing in white supremacist churches.
All the while, Hall was passing information to Burkey at the FBI. Hall said he suffered from insomnia and drank heavily to cope with the stress.
In 1999, Dees was preparing take the Aryan Nations to court. He was suing them on behalf of an attack victim from Idaho.
Around this time, Hall said he overheard talk that made him think a plot might be afoot to either kill Dees or bomb the law center.
“White supremacist groups throughout the country hated Dees, and, privately, many expressed the view that the assassination of Dees would be the greatest achievement any white supremacist could accomplish,” Hall wrote in his book.
Hall said he and Kelly twice traveled together to Edwards’ Klan compound — then located in Powderly, Ky.
On one visit, Hall said, he drove Kelly to a farmhouse to get PVC pipes that he feared could be used as bombs; on a second trip, Hall said he wore an FBI wire.
“They engineered a leather vest, it was like James Bond,” Hall said. “It had a wire, but you couldn’t find it … it was terrifying.”
In an interview, Edwards said he remembered Hall, and suspected he was an informant.
“I didn’t like him. I didn’t trust him. He asked too many questions,” he said.
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