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POWs Waiting for Apologies (in National News) API Advisory Commission Visits S.F. (in Bay Area News) Asian Food Markets in the Bay Area (in Business) Lampo Leong's Forces • Contemplation (in A&E) Reasons to Celebrate (in Opinion) Lawsuit Filed Against Gun Manufacturers By Mike Robinson/AP A civil lawsuit filed June 28 on behalf of four of the victims of Benjamin Smith’s hate-driven shooting rampage names two gun manufacturers and two dealers, claiming their negligence was to blame. “The life of Won-Joon Yoon and the lives of so many others were destroyed by a man who shouldn’t have been allowed to buy guns but did,” said Catherine Matthews, Yoon’s girlfriend. Smith, 21, killed two people in Illinois and Indiana and wounded nine others before killing himself during the Fourth of July weekend one year ago. All of Smith’s victims were Jewish, black or Asian. Fatally shot were former Northwestern basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong and Yoon, a 26-year-old student at Indiana University. The lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit court by the Washington-based Center to Prevent Handgun Violence on behalf of the Yoon family and three men who were wounded in the rampage—the Rev. Stephen Tracy Anderson, Hillel Goldstein and Steven H. Kuo. The lawsuit was announced at a news conference attended by members of Yoon’s family, who flew to Chicago from South Korea for the occasion. Holding a photo of his smiling son, the victim’s father, Shin-Ho Yoon, thanked Americans for taking an interest in the case. He said his son was killed by “one senseless hate monger.” “Hate by any human being diminishes the human community and the hope of peace among us,” Yoon added. Named as defendants are Bryco Arms and Sturm, Ruger & Co., the gun makers, as well as Old Prairie Trading Post, the gun dealer that sold the guns to Donald Fiessinger of Pekin, the unlicensed gun dealer who sold two pistols to Smith. Fiessinger is also a defendant. A receptionist at Sturm, Ruger offices in Westport, Conn., said last week that company spokesman Steve Sanetti would not be available to comment. A receptionist at Bryco Arms in Costa Mesa, Calif., said that she would “pass your message to the person.” The number listed for Old Prairie did not answer when called three times last Thursday morning. In March, Fiessinger was sentenced to 10 months in prison for supplying the guns used in the rampage. A Bryco .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun and a .22-caliber handgun were found with Smith’s body after he committed suicide July 4 near Salem, Ill. Fiessinger admitted selling those guns to Smith. Anderson, who is black, was shot three times as he stood in his driveway July 3 near some of his nieces and nephews. He has said he has lost nearly total use of his right hand and arm and has suffered emotionally and financially. Smith had been a follower of the East Peoria-based World Church of the Creator, a racist organization headed by Matthew Hale. Hale has not been charged with any crime related to the shootings.