District of Columbia v. Beretta, U.S.A., Corp., et al.; Lawson, et al. v. Beretta, U.S.A., Corp., et al., District of Columbia Court of Appeals, Associate Judge Farrell, April 21, 2005 [allowing individuals, but not the government, to sue gun manufacturers for damages arising from injuries or deaths caused by the gun's discharge]. Excerpt:

We reverse the dismissal of the statutory count as to the individual plaintiffs, holding that they may advance to discovery on strict liability notwithstanding the difficulties of proof they may confront. We also reverse the dismissal of that count as to the District of Columbia to the extent — but only the extent — that it seeks subrogated damages as to named individual plaintiffs for whom it has incurred medical expenses. Otherwise we sustain the judgment of the trial court, holding that none of the plaintiffs has stated a valid claim of common-law negligence and that the District has not stated a claim of public nuisance on the facts alleged.

Read the full text of the opinion here [PDF]. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.