The City of Rochester is going after companies that manufacture firearms, filing a lawsuit that seeks to hold them responsible for their role in the city’s gun violence crisis.
The suit was announced Tuesday by Mayor Malik Evans, Corporation Counsel Linda Kingsley, and lawyers from the New York City firm of Napoli Shkolnik, which also has worked with the city on opioid litigation.
Kingsley said this lawsuit goes after gun makers that include Beretta, Smith & Wesson, Glock, Remington and Bushmaster.
She said the city has been focusing on nuisance abatement, and guns are part of that.
“So, when you get to look at ‘nuisance,’ what is the common factor in nuisance, it’s almost always gun violence,” said Kingsley. “So we view this as our opportunity to say, we’re going to call them what they really are, a public nuisance and this lawsuit allows us to do that.”
Salvatore Badala is a partner with Napoli Shkolnik. He said this lawsuit looks at a number of issues, including the way that guns are marketed.
“In 2020, children and teenagers, the leading cause of death were firearms, not car accidents,” said Badala. “So we’re seeing that the conduct by these defendants is leading to actual harm within the city, and that’s why we have the cause of action for nuisance. And then we also have the marketing claims as well.”
The lawsuit seeks damages from the gun manufacturers as well as the creation of an abatement fund.
Kingsley said it’s being done on a contingency basis, so there’s no cost to the city, unless the lawsuit is successful.
Mayor Evans said that violence prevention requires a multitude of strategies and a significant amount of collaboration. He said this lawsuit “is just the latest tactic I will dedicate to eradicating gun violence in Rochester.”
WXXI News contacted some of the gun manufacturers being named in the lawsuit, but there was no immediate response to the pending lawsuit.
