» Help Save Lives: Click here

The Brady Center’s Legal Action Project (LAP) has been, 
for twenty years, the nation’s leading public interest law program  devoted to using the courts to reduce gun violence.

LAP’s work includes:

Representing victims.  We seek justice in the courts for victims of gun violence, bringing civil liability cases against irresponsible gun sellers and owners.  LAP attorneys have won millions of dollars in damages for gun violence victims, as well as forcing changes in how gun companies do business.

Defending gun laws.  We defend gun laws under attack in the courts in order to ensure that hard-fought legislative victories, at the local, state, or federal level, are preserved in the courts.  We represent governments or appear as amicus curiae defending gun laws.

Fighting harmful policies.  We bring legal actions challenging laws and regulations that increase the risk that dangerous people will get access to guns.  For example, we successfully brought suit against the Bush Administration to strike down its rule change that would allow concealed guns in national parks.

Educating the public and decision-makers.  We engage in public  education activities on legal and policy issues related to gun violence, including issuing reports that inform the public, media, and lawmakers of gun issues.

» Help Save Lives: Click here

In the 1980's, public interest lawyers had taken on the automobile industry, Big Tobacco, and polluters, but none had sought to have gun dealers pay the price for supplying guns with a wink and a nod to traffickers and straw purchasers.

Gun manufacturers knew that they could forgo life-saving safety features, or sell guns to corrupt distributors and dealers who supplied the criminal market, and never have to pay for their irresponsible practices. And whenever National Rifle Association lawyers rushed into court to argue that gun laws should be struck down, there were no “lawyers for common sense gun laws” to oppose them.

In 1989, the Legal Action Project was created to change all that.

Since then, LAP attorneys have represented gun violence victims pro bono in courts throughout the country, establishing a body of law holding that those who manufacture, distribute and sell guns owe a duty to engage in their business responsibly, and they may be liable for contributing to criminal or unintentional shootings when they fail to do so.

LAP attorneys, working closely with attorneys and law firms from the legal community, have won precedent-setting rulings in Massachusetts, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, California, and elsewhere, holding that gun manufacturers and dealers may have to compensate victims for supplying criminals or gun traffickers.

As a result, gun companies have paid millions of dollars to victims and families, and some gun sellers have agreed to reform their business practices, going beyond what the law requires to prevent supplying the criminal market.

In other LAP cases, courts held – for the first time – that gun manufacturers may have to pay the price for unintentional shootings that could have been prevented if they had included life-saving safety devices in their guns.

When LAP brought its landmark child-proof gun case in California in 1995, gun manufacturers scoffed at the notion that guns should – or could – include internal locks to prevent children and other unauthorized persons from firing them. But after litigation demonstrated that the safety measures were feasible – and that gun companies risked paying the price if they failed to include them – numerous manufacturers began child-proofing their guns.

The Legal Action Project pledges to continue its fights on behalf of victims of gun violence and fight to defend sensible gun laws.

1989: Established to take the fight against gun violence into the courts.

1991: Successfully defends Columbus ordinance banning possession of military-style assault weapons.

1993: Files an amicus brief in Abascal v. Lungren supporting a California law allowing the California Attorney General to petition a court to add new assault weapons to the list of guns already banned.

1994: Files Merrill v. Navegar, Inc., against assault weapon manufacturer on behalf of victims of the 101 California Street massacre in San Francisco in which eight were killed and another six injured.

1995: Files Dix v. Beretta, against gun manufacturer on behalf of family of 15 year old Kenzo Dix. The case becomes the first to be tried on the theory that a gun manufacturer should include internal locks or other personalized technology, and leads numerous manufacturers to include such safety features.

1997: Files brief defending the Brady Law in the U.S. Supreme Court. The gun lobby fails to have the entire law invalidated as the Court struck down only a narrow portion.

1997: Helps convince the Florida Supreme Court to hold K-Mart liable for selling a gun to a drunk buyer who shot his ex-girlfriend. The jury awarded $13 million.

1998: Representing the City of New Orleans, files the first public entity suit against the gun industry for its conduct facilitating gun violence.

1998: Assists Massachusetts in defending one of the strongest gun control laws in the nation, addressing problems such as unsafe junk guns and assault weapons.

1999: Wins first appeals court ruling that a gun manufacturer can be held liable for negligence leading to the criminal use of a gun, in Merrill v. Navegar.

2000: Smith and Wesson becomes first gun manufacturer to settle cases brought by LAP for cities and counties, agreed to make sweeping changes to business practices.

2000: New York City becomes the 32nd city or county to sue the gun industry; 26 represented by LAP.

2000: Wins settlement against dealer who sold gun used to kill a Florida school teacher.

2001: Wins in New Mexico Supreme Court, upholding a decision that a gun manufacturer can be liable for a shooting with a gun that lacked a magazine safety.

2001: Publishes Guns and Terror: How Terrorists Exploit Our Weak Gun Laws.

2001: Helps convince courts to reject challenges to California’s and New Jersey’s assault weapon bans.

2001: Files ethics complaint against Attorney General John Ashcroft for undercutting the U.S.’ interpretation of the Second Amendment in a criminal prosecution in United States v. Emerson.

2002: After California Supreme Court dismisses Merrill v. Navegar based on a state industry shield law, LAP successfully works to repeal the statute.

2002: Helps convince U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to reject a gun lobby challenge to a Massachusetts law restricting possession of assault weapons.

2003: Files a civil lawsuit for victims of the D.C.-area snipers against the dealer and manufacturer whose gun was used to terrorize the region in the fall of 2002.

2003: Publishes report, Smoking Guns, revealing formerly confidential documents and whistleblower statements establishing gun industry complicity in fueling the illegal gun market.

2003: Five gun sellers agree to alter their business practices in return for being released from lawsuits by California cities and counties represented by LAP.

2003: Wins a unanimous Indiana Supreme Court ruling that gun manufacturers and sellers may be liable to the city of Gary for contributing to the city’s gun violence problem.

2003: Assists California lawyer Richard Ruggeri in Maxfield v. Bryco, which results in a $50 million verdict, $24 million against Saturday Night Special manufacturer Bryco Arms, which then files for bankruptcy.

2004: Wins historic settlements in three lawsuits brought by victims of gun violence, yielding a record $4.4 million from three gun dealers and a manufacturer.

2004: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirms that the Pennsylvania State Police may maintain handgun sales records used to solve gun crimes, rejecting a challenge by the gun lobby. The court relies in part on an amicus brief filed by LAP.

2005: Files three new lawsuits against gun sellers who supplied criminals and gun traffickers with firearms, on behalf of children and teenagers shot in Buffalo, New York, and Philadelphia.

2006: Wins before Indiana Superior Court judge who holds that federal gun industry shield law is unconstitutional.

2006: Prevails in two cases on behalf of Philadelphia children killed with guns to proceed despite the federal gun shield law, leading to a settlement against a gun dealer.

2006: Helps establish precedent in Massachusetts when Supreme Judicial Court in Jupin v. Kask holds that homeowners may be liable for shootings with stolen guns that are not properly secured in the home.

2007: Breaks the story that the shooter in America’s worst mass shooting, at Virginia Tech, was a prohibited purchaser, helping pass law to strengthen background checks.

2007: Files brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the Second Amendment case of D.C. v. Heller.

2008: Files two new cases against gun dealers on behalf of gun violence victims in Juneau and Salt Lake City.

2008: Publishes Unintended Consequences: What the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment Decision in D.C. v. Heller Means for the Future of Gun Laws.

2009: Publishes Exporting Gun Violence: How Our Weak Gun Laws in Mexico and America and No Check. No Gun: Why Brady Background Checks Should Be Required For All Gun Sales.

2009: Wins in the United States Supreme Court when a broad interpretation of the federal ban on gun possession by convicted misdemeanor domestic violence abusers is upheld, citing arguments from the amicus brief filed by LAP.

2009: Wins preliminary injunction halting implementation of Bush Administration rule allowing concealed firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges.