By Dave Workman
Twenty-six years after filing a lawsuit against the firearms industry, the City of Gary, Indiana has finally been stopped by the Indiana Supreme Court, which ruled that it will not hear an appeal from the city, which challenged a state law designed to end the lawsuit, claiming it was unconstitutional.
As a result, the city has run out of legal options.
It was possibly the longest-running “junk” lawsuit filed against gun makers back in 1999 during the wave of legal actions promoted by the gun control lobby, costing the firearms industry millions of dollars to defend. The National Shooting Sports Foundation—the firearms industry umbrella group—also greeted the court’s decision, ending a ridiculous chapter in anti-gun municipal activism.
“The order by Indiana’s Supreme Court ends a dark chapter in the history of America’s firearm industry,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel in a statement to the media. “Sadly, however, the lawfare against members of the firearm industry continues, backed by well-funded gun control groups and antigun Democrat politicians with the support of liberal, elitist big law firms located in the canyons of Wall Street and elsewhere. They deploy new and devious strategies in open defiance of the will of Congress, but their end goal is the same. They want to destroy the firearm industry and with it the Second Amendment. Congress must reassert its authority to end the lawfare against our law-abiding industry for once and for all.”
Those harassment lawsuits led to bipartisan passage of the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) in 2005, under then-President George W. Bush. The law prevents such legal actions, often described as “public nuisance lawsuits,” which have tried to hold gun makers and the industry liable for crimes committed by third parties who use guns illegally. The gun prohibition lobby has been trying to repeal the statute ever since, hoping to re-open the door to costly legal actions.
As noted by The Trace—the Michael Bloomberg-backed pro-gun control news organ—Gary was part of a larger national movement by anti-gun municipal governments, including New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlanta to financially strap gun makers, wholesalers and retailers. Named in those lawsuits were “iconic” brands including Beretta, Glock and Smith & Wesson.
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, questioned the stubbornness of successive Gary administrations to continue the legal battle, costing taxpayers untold amounts of money.
