Gary’s 27-year lawsuit against gun industry dies with Indiana Supreme Court decision

A major gun control group is conceding defeat in the City of Gary’s lawsuit against gun manufacturers that stretches back to 1999.

The Indiana Supreme Court declined Thursday to reconsider a state appeals court decision from December upholding a 2024 law pushed by Republican legislators, which aimed to kill the lawsuit by allowing only the state attorney general to pursue such cases against gunmakers.

Washington, D.C.-based Brady represented Gary in the lawsuit, which alleged local gun dealers and major firearms manufacturers — Smith & Wesson, Glock and more — contributed to gun violence in the city through negligent business practices, such as not preventing illegal straw purchases.

The group said the Supreme Court’s action “effectively ends the ability for the City of Gary to continue pursuing this case in court.”

“What happened here should shock and terrify anyone wanting to access the courts to seek accountability,” Brady President Kris Brown said in a statement. “In no uncertain terms: the gun industry defendants got the legislators whose campaigns they fund to pass five separate laws over 25 years to end legitimate lawsuits like Gary’s.”

“Instead of letting the City of Gary have their day in court, these gun companies and the legislators they help elect chose a weak and sad path,” Brown said. “Hoosiers will all suffer and justice continues to be delayed as a result.”

The Supreme Court order said the justices voted 4-1 to deny the city’s appeal request, with only Justice Christopher Goff dissenting. The order gave no explanation for the decision.

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Democratic Gary Mayor Eddie Melton argued that the 2024 law stripped the right to access the legal system from all Hoosier communities. 

State Rep. Chris Jeter, R-Fishers, the sponsor of the 2024 bill, said the Supreme Court’s decision “reinforces a basic principle: manufacturers should not be held legally responsible for the independent criminal acts of third parties.”

“If a city can sue an entire industry every time someone misuses a lawful product, there is no limiting principle left,” Jeter said in a statement to the Capital Chronicle. “Indiana has long recognized that crimes should be prosecuted against the criminals who commit them, not shifted onto lawful businesses through decades of politically driven litigation.”

A Lake County judge allowed the lawsuit to continue with a 2024 ruling repudiating the law’s retroactive nature.

The state appeals court, however, disagreed in a 3-0 decision.

“Unfair as it may appear, the legislature can legally do exactly what it did in this case, and we cannot second-guess its public policy determinations in this regard,” the decision said.

Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita, whose office sought the lawsuit’s dismissal, on Friday applauded the Supreme Court’s action as ending the “City of Gary’s relentless campaign to harass the firearms industry.”

“This huge victory prevents a single city or small group of cities from using baseless lawsuits to dictate how guns are sold across our entire state, ensuring that responsible, law-abiding citizens can continue to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” Rokita said in a statement.