c_yeager:
The tobacco companies finally cried "uncle" in the face of lawsuits by state attorneys general with pockets as deep as their taxpayers'. What makes you think that the firearms industry, which is a fraction the size of the tobacco industry, would somehow hold out where the tobacconists knuckled under? Also, the only reason the tobacconists got off as easily as they did was because tax revanue gleaned from tobacco sales is HUGE and the state attorneys general did not want to kill the goose that laid the golden egg...just squeeze it a bit, slap it around, extort it, and make sure it knew its place. The firearms companies have no such ace up their sleeve.