Litigation, Mass Media, and the Campaign to Criminalize the Firearms Industry

<p>This article extends the co-authors&rsquo; researches on mass media coverage of crusades against manufacturers and marketers of tobacco products in the United States to media coverage of similar crusades against manufacturers and marketers of firearms in the United States. The major con...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: William T. Haltom, Michael McCann
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law 2014-10-01
Series:Oñati Socio-Legal Series
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ssrn.com/abstract=2499208
Description
Summary:<p>This article extends the co-authors&rsquo; researches on mass media coverage of crusades against manufacturers and marketers of tobacco products in the United States to media coverage of similar crusades against manufacturers and marketers of firearms in the United States. The major contention of the article is that firearms-reformers have used civil suits and allied publicity outside courts to depict firearms producers and retailers as criminals. A major tactic that has unified reformers&rsquo; efforts inside and outside courts is deployment of crimtorts, civil litigation for torts that includes elements of criminal prosecution. Crimtorts and publicity through entertainment media enabled opponents of firearms companies to lose case after case yet to damage the reputations or brands of firearms makers and marketers. The firearms interests fended off crusaders in civil action after civil action yet became portrayed as outright criminals owing mostly to crimtorts.</p> <hr /><p>Este art&iacute;culo amplia las investigaciones de los autores sobre la cobertura medi&aacute;tica de las cruzadas contra productores y vendedores de tabaco en los Estados Unidos hacia la cobertura medi&aacute;tica de cruzadas similares contra productores y vendedores de armas de fuego en Estados Unidos. El argumento principal del art&iacute;culo sostiene que los que buscan la reforma de la legislaci&oacute;n sobre armas de fuego han utilizado las demandas civiles y la publicidad externa a los tribunales para representar a los productores y vendedores de armas de fuego como criminales. Una t&aacute;ctica principal que ha unido los esfuerzos de los reformistas dentro y fuera de los tribunales es el uso de crimtorts, juicios civiles para acciones por responsabilidad civil extracontractual que incluyen elementos de procesos criminales. A pesar de perder caso tras caso, los crimtorts y la publicidad en los medios de entretenimiento permiti&oacute; a los oponentes a las compa&ntilde;&iacute;as armament&iacute;sticas perjudicar la reputaci&oacute;n o las marcas de los fabricantes y vendedores de armas. Los intereses de las armas de fuego se defendieron de sus oponentes mediante una acci&oacute;n civil tras otra, sin embargo, se les represent&oacute; como verdaderos criminales debido, en mayor parte, a los crimtorts.</p> <p><strong>DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN</strong>: <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=2499208" target="_blank">http://ssrn.com/abstract=2499208</a></p>
ISSN:2079-5971