Cobb County judge tosses gun dealer's lawsuit against NYC

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Cobb County judge has dismissed a Smyrna gun seller’s lawsuit that was brought against New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg after the mayor called the Georgia businessman a “rogue” gun dealer.

Jay Wallace, who owns Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, brought the suit after New York City sued him and 26 other gun dealers – eight in Georgia – in 2006 because guns from their stores had been recovered at New York City crime scenes.

Former Congressman and former federal prosecutor Bob Barr, who represented Wallace in this suit, said he expected to appeal the dismissal but the legal strategy was still being discussed.

"We certainly intend to pursue this vigorously," Barr said Tuesday. "I think we have a very strong case."

When he announced the suit, Bloomberg said an undercover sting operation had targeted “rogue gun dealers” in states where it was easier to buy handguns.

Wallace’s suit demanded $400 million from Bloomberg and New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, saying they libeled him with their characterizations.

New York said the officials were only exercising their free speech rights and the Georgia lawsuit was brought to silence their criticisms of Wallace.

New York’s lawyers asked that Wallace’s lawsuit be dismissed because it violated Georgia’s anti-SLAPP statute, the Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation law, which prohibits lawsuits solely to silence critics. Cobb Superior Court Judge George Kreeger dismissed the Georgia case on Sept. 23 because Wallace never verified the lawsuit was not brought to silence Bloomberg and Kelly.

Barr said he didn't think the Georgia Legislature had a case like this in mind when it drafted the law. Bar said the anti-SLAPP statute was designed to protect the average citizen from a government attempting to silence criticism.

The fight between New York and Wallace began three years ago when New York officials, frustrated that guns sold in five other states were being used to commit crimes in their city, began an undercover operation in five states. The city sent pairs of investigators into gun shops with instructions to give clerks the impression one of them was buying the gun for the other who legally could not.

Those cases have since been resolved without a trial. Wallace was the only dealer to get a court date but he conceded the case as the trial started because, he said, he did not expect to get a fair hearing.