THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 12, 1995 TAG: 9504120429
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
In a landmark decision, a San Francisco judge ruled that survivors of a 1993 mass killing can sue the manufacturer of the semiautomatic assault weapons used in the attack.
On July 1, 1993, Gian Luigi Ferri strode into the towering office building at California and Market streets armed with three guns - two of them semiautomatic pistols - and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He killed eight people and wounded six more before he killed himself.
Superior Court Judge James Warren ruled late Monday that Navegar Inc., the Florida manufacturer of the two TEC-DC9 semiautomatic pistols that Ferri carried, could be negligent and liable if it had made and promoted a gun that the company could have anticipated would be used for a massacre.
``This is a wake-up call to companies that sell their guns to criminals with a wink and a nod, basically knowing they're going to be used to kill people,'' said attorney William Kissinger. He said his client, Marilyn Merrill, whose husband, Mike, was the last person Ferri shot dead, felt the decision brought something hopeful out of her personal tragedy.
Michelle Scully, whose husband, John, died trying to protect her from the bullets, said after the ruling that it would force the manufacturers of assault weapons to think about the consequences caused by the products they made.
``This means they cannot sell these weapons and market them to the criminal element, take the money they make and sleep well that night,'' she said.
Navegar said it might appeal Warren's ruling. The company had asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing that its guns were not defective. The company said it had done nothing illegal in the manufacture, marketing and sale of its guns.
Navegar attorney Ernest Getto said the semiautomatic guns Ferri used had been made legally in Florida and sold to Ferri in Nevada, both states without bans on assault weapons at the time.
Getto pointed to courts in Louisiana and Connecticut that threw out similar lawsuits because state law didn't hold gunmakers liable for their use.
But Warren said the San Francisco situation was different because state lawmakers banned certain semiautomatic weapons in 1989.
KEYWORDS: RULING LAWSUIT GUNS HANDGUNS GUN MANUFACTURER by CNB