Why I think it is about guns, and not tobacco!

Unlike some here, I can think of a couple of reasons that it was changed from the tobacco industry being sued (in the book) to the gun industry, and neither involve politics.

1)I read in the Trivia section, that it was planned to be about the tobacco industry (like in the book), but "The Insider" with Russell Crowe, was being made at the same time, so it was changed to avoid comparisons, as the screenplays afterwards were changed to it being the gun industry being sued.

2)It would invoke more sympathy for the victim, and get the audience to take the side of Dustin Hoffman, John Kusak and Rachel Weisz's characters. If it was about tobacco, then there would be people posting here, saying it is the victim's fault, for choosing to smoke despite the health warnings, and so the tobacco would not be the "bad guys" of the film. Instead, an innocent stockbroker arrives at work, trying to remember the words to a song that he was going to sing to his son that night, only to be violently killed by a sacked co-worker in a massacre. Doing it this way would make the audience want to see justice done more, as they didn't give any indication that the victim did anything to deserve his death. This then paints the intended heroes and villians in the film in a more obvious light.