Gun Maker Smith & Wesson Sues New Jersey

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, who previously sued companies that sell parts used to make untraceable firearms called “ghost guns,” wants Smith & Wesson to turn over a swath of internal documents related to advertising guns in the state. The subpoena, a copy of which is included in the suit, includes requests for any marketing claims that Smith & Wesson guns are safer than others, that carrying a concealed weapon enhances a person’s lifestyle and that novices can use the company’s guns effectively for self-defense.

Smith & Wesson’s attorneys said in its complaint, filed in federal court in New Jersey, that the subpoena “seeks evidence of consumer fraud relating to advertising—but in reality, it seeks to suppress and punish lawful speech regarding gun ownership in order to advance an anti-Second Amendment agenda that the Attorney General publicly committed to pursue.”

The gun manufacturer wants the court to stop the state from enforcing the subpoena.

A spokesman for the Democratic attorney general said the office doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

A representative for Smith & Wesson didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Lawrence Keane, general counsel and senior vice president for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun industry trade group, said he is aware of similar subpoenas going out to other gun companies but declined to name them. Mr. Keane said the subpoena was overly broad. “Commercial speech is protected by the first amendment,” he said.

The gun industry had been largely free of legal attacks since a 2005 federal law granted it immunity from liability claims over gun violence.

But in 2019, the Connecticut Supreme Court said an AR-15 maker could be held legally responsible for marketing practices that allegedly made the semiautomatic gun the weapon of choice for mass shooters. That court overturned the dismissal of a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by families of victims of 2012’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Since then, the parents of a woman killed in the 2017 Las Vegas massacre have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the manufacturers of the AR-15 style rifles used by the gunman under a similar theory.

Like other gun manufacturers, Smith & Wesson has seen gun sales increase amid pandemic and protest fears. The company reported $230 million in gross sales from its firearms segment in the quarter that ended July 31, more than double the same period a year ago.

Write to Zusha Elinson at [email protected]