As the landmark trial known as Hamilton v. Accu-Tek got underway in a Brooklyn courtroom this month, no one would say whether the mysterious Robert Hass would actually testify in person. What is clear is that he has ricocheted on the gun industry. In a sworn affidavit and at a contentious deposition, Hass claimed under oath that he and other gun executives didn’t lift a finger to stem the underground flow of guns into American cities, even though they could have. That doesn’t make for an open-and-shut case. But as several cities, beginning with Chicago and New Orleans, prepare to file similar lawsuits against the gun industry, their lawyers are already seizing on Hass’s testimony to bolster their claim that the gun manufacturers are at fault. Having modeled their assault on the massive legal campaign against the tobacco industry, anti-gun activists hope that Hass–or someone who follows his example– could turn out to be their Jeffrey Wygand, the Brown and Williamson turncoat who helped singe Big Tobacco. So far, however, the ornery 68-year-old Hass won’t talk to other lawyers or the press, and he may not willingly appear in front of the Hamilton jury, either. Lawyers say he is concerned about his privacy and his safety. ““I said everything I had to say in the affidavit,’’ Hass told a reporter on the doorstep of his suburban Connecticut home. ““I guess I’m not that courageous.''

Hass’s accusations don’t concern what he and other gun executives did, but rather what they didn’t do. Smith & Wesson ships thousands of handguns to distributors from its factory in Springfield, Mass.–a 700,000-square-foot complex thick with the stench of forged metal. These national distributors then supply the guns to retailers, who are supposed to sell them only to legitimate users. What often happens, however, is this: criminal gun traffickers buy caches of guns illegally from shady dealers in states–largely in the Southeast–that have more lenient gun laws. The handguns are then shipped to states and cities like New York, Boston and Chicago where it’s almost impossible to legally buy a handgun. Lawyers in the Hamilton case–filed by the relatives of six people killed in separate shootings in New York City and Yonkers– assert that as many as 90 percent of the handgun crimes in New York City are committed with guns that were smuggled across the border. And those crimes could have been prevented, they say, if the gun makers themselves would stop shipping more guns around the country than could ever be purchased by legitimate users. They want the manufacturers to pay damages.

The gun industry has long maintained that because of its two-tier distribution system–first to distributors, and then to retailers–it has no way of knowing where its guns wind up, or who buys them. But now comes Robert Hass–and he says that isn’t true. He charges that companies like Smith & Wesson know they could keep records that would show them where criminals are getting their guns, and enable them to take action to stop it. But that, he says, would be bad for business. ““The manufacturers could do more, and their hands aren’t clean if they ship totally legally to distributors,’’ Hass said at his deposition. While Smith & Wesson never bothered to check on whether gun dealers were selling its guns legally, he said, the company was more than willing to get tough with dealers who tried to sell guns at too low a price. ““God knows we did that enough,’’ he said.

Lean, balding and bespectacled, Hass doesn’t seem intimidated by the industry’s legal might. His six-hour deposition at a Connecticut hotel last April was marked by rancor and sarcasm. He frequently answered questions with a simple ““Yep’’ and gave his occupation as ““retired soccer mom.’’ At one point an exasperated defense lawyer asked if Barnes had paid Hass anything for his testimony. ““She bought me two lunches that were nice, and she bought me a tuna-fish bagel that was marginal,’’ he replied. Asked what prompted him to reach out to Barnes, Hass said, ““You know, when you’re retired, you really get a chance to think about things you didn’t in the past.’’ His old colleagues in the gun industry don’t buy that explanation; they say Hass is a disgruntled ex-employee seeking revenge because he felt shafted by Smith & Wesson. While the terms of Hass’s departure from Smith & Wesson aren’t publicly known, he said they did bar him from sharing specifics about the company’s business. Several times during his deposition he was asked about internal company documents (Wygand allegedly leaked confidential Brown & Williamson documents to the media); he repeatedly said he had none.

Smith & Wesson’s lawyer in the Hamilton case, Anne Kimball, says she’s not worried about any incriminating documents–or about Hass. Dismissing his charges, she says: ““I don’t think he has anything to add. He left Smith & Wesson in 1989, and he’s had no experience with the firearms industry since that time.’’ An industry spokesman, Richard Feldman of the American Shooting Sports Council, says manufacturers have been working with law enforcement to help solve the gun-trafficking problem by setting up an online system to trace weapons back to their sources in a matter of hours. But Feldman says it’s up to the cops, not gun makers, to stop stores from selling guns illegally. Companies like Smith & Wesson, he says, are just filling orders as they come in. ““We are doing everything to the letter of the law,’’ he says.

Is that enough? That’ll be up to a judge to decide–or several of them. No matter what happens in the case, as many as a dozen cities and states may file suits against the gun industry by the end of the year. Like the suit in Chicago, most will rely on a ““public nuisance’’ theory that likens the gun trade to toxic waste dumped downtown. By that reasoning, gun makers could be held accountable for some of the cleanup costs, including medical bills and police overtime. Lawyers will be eager to get Hass on record in those cases, too. ““I would hope he wants to get out what he knows,’’ says David Kairys, the Temple University law professor who has pioneered the municipal lawsuits. ““He’s quite significant in that he’s the first in breaching the silence of the gun industry.’’ If the reclusive Hass refuses to cooperate, he could find himself holding a fistful of subpoenas. Whether he likes it or not, Robert Hass’s life as a retired soccer mom may be coming to end.