New Jersey and Delaware AGs join fight to hold firearm dealers accountable

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

Attorneys general from 16 states, including Delaware and New Jersey, have established a coalition aimed at promoting accountability within the firearms industry regarding its significant contribution to gun violence.

The alliance, the first of its kind, aims to end the problem by coordinating enforcement of the states’ civil liability and consumer protection laws to promote public safety and save lives.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is leading the charge on this initiative. He said the goal is not to curtail lawful gun ownership but to protect communities from misguided business practices that contribute to “unsafe gun proliferation,” which he said leads to mass shootings in churches, synagogues, schools, shopping malls, concerts, and supermarkets.

“Together with my fellow Attorneys General, I will fight to protect our state residents from the wanton disregard for human life caused by bad actors in the firearms industry, which contribute to rising gun violence,” Platkin said.

All 16 states that joined the coalition share the same goal.

Delaware Attorney General Kathleen Jennings said gun trafficking is one of the root causes of gun violence in the First State.

“If we can lower gun trafficking in our state, and if we can ensure that gun dealers, federally licensed firearm dealers, act responsibly,” Jennings said in an interview with WHYY News. “We have to use every tool available to us.”

Jennings said 60% of crime guns recovered in Delaware originate from straw purchases — when someone buys firearms from someone who is prohibited from buying them on their own. It’s something her office has been working to crack down on.

Last year, a federal judge upheld a state law allowing Delaware to enforce the KeKe Anderson Safe Firearm Sales Act.

It establishes a legal framework that holds firearm manufacturers and retail dealers accountable when they knowingly or recklessly engage in actions that pose a risk to the health and safety of residents in this State through the sale, manufacture, distribution, and marketing of firearm-related products.

“We have to make sure that dealers and other retail establishments are behaving, that they are holding themselves to a standard that we can trust,” Jennings said.

Last year, Jennings’ office investigated Cabela’s Inc. after 500,000 rounds of ammunition were shoplifted from its Christiana location. The probe examined if Cabela’s had violated various laws, including Delaware’s firearms industry public nuisance law, through its lax approach to this shoplifting.

Jennings said Cabela’s had a habit of putting their ammunition right out on the sales floor, near the store’s main entrance. That resulted in thousands of rounds of ammunition being stolen on an annual basis.

“That was not okay,” Jennings said. “ATF had previously said, ‘Why don’t you put the ammunition behind the counter?’ They refused to listen to the ATF, and that’s where we dove in.” As a result, Cabela’s ammunition is now stored out of plain sight, and a state law was passed requiring establishments to keep ammunition behind the counter.

A Joyce Foundation report on state civil enforcement noted that gun violence results in more than $500 billion in economic losses annually in the United States.

“The gun industry has made a killing by selling Americans on the very profitable myth that we must be armed to be safe,” said Nina Vinik, founder and president of Project Unloaded, a national organization creating a new cultural narrative on gun safety, in an email to WHYY News: “Just as the tobacco industry was held to account for its harmful practices decades ago, the gun lobby too must answer for its deception.”

Monisha Henley, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at Everytown for Gun Safety agrees.

She emphasizes that addressing gun violence and saving lives necessitates the participation of all stakeholders, including advocates, survivors, lawmakers, local leaders, law enforcement officials, and importantly, attorneys general.

“They are among those at the forefront of holding the gun industry accountable for their misconduct, and we’re grateful to see these ‘gun sense’ leaders stepping up to the plate with this coalition. We look forward to seeing what they accomplish through their combined efforts, making communities in their states and across the country safer for it.” Henley said.