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NEW YORK (CNN) -- In a case bound to rock America's gun industry, a federal jury Thursday found 15 of the nation's largest handgun makers negligent in their marketing and distributing practices.

"I thank God, we absolutely won," said lead plaintiff Freddie Hamilton, whose son, Njuzi, was slain in 1993. She predicted the verdict would bring a "new phase" of litigation against the firearms industry.

"I don't think they felt they needed to care, and this verdict will have them rethinking that," said Hamilton.

Another 10 manufacturers were cleared of negligence. "We have seen some things they did that helped take guns off the street ... and stuff like that, that a lot of others didn't do," juror Charles Beatty said.

The mixed verdict required 42 pages of explanation. Jurors found nine companies partly responsible for the shooting death of one man. Four of the companies were found partly responsible for the shooting death of another, and three of the companies were found partly responsible for the wounding of a third man.

A lawyer representing six of the companies said all efforts will be made to have the verdict overturned.

Families of six homicide victims and the severely wounded man brought the civil lawsuit, seeking millions of dollars in what's being viewed as a test case for similar anti-gun suits brought by several large cities.

In the one case where the shooting victim survived, the jury assessed the gun manufacturers $4 million in damages. But the victim, Steven Fox, and his mother will get only a portion of that, a sum in excess of $500,000.

No damages were awarded to families of the dead, an issue that one juror said divided the panel in its six days of deliberations.

Beatty said he wanted to pay more damages to more victims, but other jurors felt otherwise.

"I think when you go on jury duty, everybody's got to compromise a little," he said.

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The plaintiffs argued handgun makers "oversupply" gun-friendly markets, mainly in the South, aware that the excess guns flow into criminal hands via illegal markets in New York and other states with stricter anti-gun laws.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs accused the defendants of dumping handguns onto the black market like "toxic waste," making no effort to identify and discipline dishonest distributors.

Gun industry attorney James Dorr told the jury it was unfair to "hold the manufacturers of a lawful, legitimately sold product responsible for acts of outlaws who are totally outside their control.... The case is simply wrong."

The gun makers also asserted that in most of the shootings the plaintiffs never presented evidence conclusively linking the weapons used to harm their relatives to specific defendants.

The plaintiffs countered that the "chain of title" is irrelevant, instead accusing the entire industry of creating a widespread risk with negligent marketing -- a concept known as collective liability.

However, the jury decided that 10 of the 25 companies in this case had no liability whatsoever.

The mixed verdict followed six difficult days of deliberations, during which the jury told the judge several times that it was deadlocked.

Early Thursday, the jury sent a note to U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein implying 10 of the 11 jurors were prepared to decide against the gun manufacturers. The note also stated that that 11th juror was holding out because of concern that such a verdict would "open the floodgates of lawsuits across the country."

Legal experts have compared the New York case to coordinated legal assault by numerous states on the tobacco industry and said that it could set a precedent for cities trying to recoup the costs of battling gun violence.

Bridgeport, Connecticut, Chicago, New Orleans and Miami-Dade County, Florida, are suing the industry. Pro-gun groups have responded by lobbying state legislatures to pass laws prohibiting such suits. Georgia has passed a law to do that, and Louisiana is considering a similar measure.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.