-Caveat Lector- TOBACCO LITIGATION [01/27] Two more cities sue gun makers, more cases expected NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The number of municipalities suing the gun industry rose to four on Wednesday with Miami and Bridgeport, Conn., joining the fray and the head of a national mayors' task force predicting many more suits are on the way. While the number of such cases is expected to rise, the nation's mayors are not planning a coordinated effort to file one large suit, said Philadelphia Mayor Edward Rendell, who heads the U.S. Conference of Mayors' gun violence task force. However, he did not rule out the possibility that several cities might file their individual suits at about the same time. ``There may be a lot of cities filing in the spring, but there will be different lawsuits individually tailored to the laws and problems, facts and circumstances of each jurisdiction,'' he said at the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter conference in Washington on Wednesday. Rendell said it was possible that gun manufacturers and cities might reach a joint court-ordered settlement but he predicted it was unlikely. ``I don't want to hold out false hope. We have seen nothing but stalling and fast talking and the usual rationale that guns don't kill people, people kill people,'' he said. Rendell said the cities were looking for improved safety features on guns and changes in the way guns are sold. ``We are not looking for money damages. We are not looking to put the gun manufacturers out of business.'' The suits filed by Miami, technically by the Miami-Dade County government, and the city of Bridgeport follow those previously filed by Chicago and New Orleans. Some mayors have predicted that as many as 40 or 50 suits will be filed by the end of this summer. ``We will not allow the gun industry to escape accountability any longer,'' Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas said at a new conference on the courthouse steps. ``They have killed our children by the dozens.'' The civil lawsuit named 25 gun makers and distributors as defendants, along with three firearms industry associations. It did not specify a dollar amount, but seeks reimbursement for ``hundreds of millions of dollars'' in police, paramedic and hospital expenses stemming from gunfire. The suit, filed in Florida Circuit Court in Miami, charges that gun makers failed to equip their products with trigger locks, load indicators and other devices to make them safer. Miami-Dade County is Florida's largest county, with 2.1 million residents and has logged 763 gunfire deaths in the past two years. The county encompasses more than two dozen cities, including Miami, Miami Beach, Hialeah and Coral Gables. The gun litigation pattern by municipalities follows that launched by state attorneys general against the tobacco industry. In fact, many of the private law firms involved in that battle are now helping the municipalities sue the gun industry. John Coale, a Washington, D.C., plaintiffs' lawyer active in class-action suits against the tobacco industry, is also helping a number of cities. Coale told Reuters that he expects Atlanta, Cincinnati and Newark, N.J., will be among the next municipalities to file. In November, the tobacco industry reached a $206 billion agreement with 46 states to repay them for money they spent under the Medicaid programme on smoking-related illnesses. These growing efforts by cities comes at the same time that an unprecedented trial against the gun industry reaches its final stages in Brooklyn federal court. The suit, brought by a group of victims' families, is based on an unusual ``negligent marketing'' theory that gun makers can be held liable for violence because they make too many firearms. Gun wholesalers had also been named as defendants, but on Tuesday the judge in the case dismissed them from the lawsuit, leaving manufacturers and importers as defendants. The case is expected to go to the jury next week. Plaintiffs' lawyers argued that gun manufacturers take advantage of the weak gun control laws in southern states and produce more guns than the legitimate market needs -- and those weapons end up in the hands of criminals in the northeastern states that have stricter laws. Last Updated: 01/27/99 20:48 EST Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. 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