Group To Sue Brazilian Gun Maker By MARCELO BALLVE RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - A human rights group has enlisted the help of U.S. lawyers to sue Brazil's largest manufacturer of handguns over failing to control gun sales in a nation where a murder takes place every 13 minutes. Elisa Barnes successfully sued Taurus International in a Brooklyn federal court and Julie Dugan is advising attorneys in similar suits across the United States. The two lawyers met Wednesday with Brazilian attorneys for the Viva Rio human rights group and will advise them in their case against Taurus International, which has its main plant in Brazil and a smaller subsidiary in Miami. A study financed by Viva Rio and the Rio de Janeiro state government showed that nearly half the guns seized by Rio's police are manufactured by Taurus International. Viva Rio is seeking unspecified damages against Taurus on grounds the company was negligent in failing to control the distribution of its guns in Brazil. Government figures show Brazilians own an estimated 8 million guns, of which about 6 million are unregistered and most of those are in the hands of criminals. Recent statistic show that a killing takes place every 13 minutes in Brazil. The suit is part of a broader campaign to curb rampant violence in this city of 6 million. Official figures show Rio's metropolitan area has 69 murders for every 100,000 residents, an annual rate that is among the highest in the world. ``The impact of negligent gun sales in Rio is tremendous,'' said Rubem Cesar Fernandes, the head of Viva Rio. ``Family members are lost and thousands of lives are cut short.'' Fernandes said a key to its case is large guns sales in the past by Taurus to neighboring Paraguay, an arms supplier for Brazilian criminals. Although Taurus recently stopped exporting arms to Paraguay, the company sold guns there for 20 years, Fernandes said. Barnes has experience against Taurus in court. In a landmark suit last year in a Brooklyn federal court, a jury ordered Taurus and two other gun makers to pay $500,000 to a man wounded by an illegal handgun. In the trial, gun makers were accused of intentionally feeding a black market for handguns by not monitoring how their products were distributed. Barnes said the jury was sympathetic to arguments that gun makers should be held responsible for supplying guns to southeastern states with loose gun regulations, because the guns often are sold illegally in northern states with tight gun control laws. That argument might work in Brazil, too, she said. ``There are many similarities in the two cases in the way that arms are trafficked between regulated and unregulated areas,'' Barnes said. The Brooklyn case set off an avalanche of suits against gun makers across the United States. At least 32 U.S. cities, including New York, have sued gun makers for negligent sales, according to Dugan, a lawyer and researcher with Johns Hopkins University. Taurus International in Brazil said it would not comment on the case. Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
