Federal Advisory Jury Declines to Find Gun Industry Liable New York Law Journal Gun dealers and manufacturers earned a major victory Wednesday when a federal advisory jury in New York refused to hold them liable for the trade in illegal guns that are used in violent crimes against urban blacks* A judge is now expected to issue a ruling that will embrace the verdict* The NAACP-led suit had sought to prove that the gun industry's negligence or willful ignorance resulted in illegal weapons flooding U*S* cities*