New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is likely to answer in person for his personal crusade against gun shop owners. the New York Times says he is likely to take the witness stand next month in a federal trial resulting from one of his lawsuits against the stores. The defendant is Jay Wallace, an irascible outdoorsman who owns a sporting goods store in the Atlanta suburb of Smyrna. Wallace, 51, arrived in New York City this week in advance of the trial, which is to begin Tuesday.
The trial can be read in many ways: as gun victim versus gun seller, as city versus country, as red state versus blue state, and, as a version of David v. Goliath, with Wallace in the self-appointed slingshot role. Legally speaking, the case is an attempt by the city to prove that Wallace knowingly sold guns to out-of-state purchasers and that those guns and others eventually found their way to New York City, where they caused a public nuisance.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/nyregion/22guns.html?_r=1&oref=slogin