Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown Tuesday announced the city is filing a lawsuit against the firearms industry, including local gun stores, gun manufacturers and distributors, for contributing to a 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 possessed guns get into the wrong hands," says Brown.
He cites the Tops shooting massacre as 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 processes the gun industry could put in place -- but haven't.
"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,"
Read the complete complaint here.
