Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown Tuesday announced a lawsuit the city is filing against members of the firearms industry, including local gun stores, gun manufacturers and distributors, for contributing to the city's gun violence crisis.
The mayor says gun violence is only getting worse in Buffalo. "Even with all the things my office and the Buffalo Police Department are doing to curb gun violence. Unfortunately, we are still seeing illegally possess guns get into the wrong hands," says Brown. He cites the 5/14 Tops shooting massacre was only one example of gun violence the city has been dealing with this year. Brown says the community must do all it can to decrease gun violence. "Enabling gun use, destroys lives and deeply affects our neighborhoods, especially in black and brown communities," says Brown.
Outside counsel Sal Badala of Napoli Shkolnik says the lawsuit not only targets ghost gun defendants, but also firearm manufacturers and distributors as well. "What you'll see in our complaint, it's an extensive complaint instances where people that never have had guns at all, are using those guns in commissions of crimes here in Buffalo," explains Badala.
Badala says the city is suing because of the process they are not taking and not doing. "For example, are they tracking when guns are used in the commission of a crime guns that are purchased in other states, you might have heard of the iron pipeline purchase in other states and are used in the commission of crimes here in Buffalo,"
You can read the complete complain here.
