Gary, Indiana On Map
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The quote of the day is presented by Guns.com.

Gary alleges the gun manufacturers engaged in unlawful sales and marketing practices that contributed to increased crime in Gary during the late 1990s, and caused the city to incur significant costs for the resulting criminal investigations and prosecutions, according to court records.

The case has lingered in Indiana’s court system since 1999 as various state and federal laws seemingly designed to shelter the gun manufacturers from civil liability were found by Hoosier judges to be inapplicable to Gary’s claims.

In 2015, the Republican-controlled Indiana General Assembly sought to do away with the city’s case once and for all by enacting a statute, retroactive to 1999, barring lawsuits against gun manufacturers relating to the lawful design, manufacture, marketing or sale of a firearm, or the unlawful misuse of a firearm by a third party.

As a result, Lake Superior Judge John Sedia last year granted the gun manufacturers’ request to dismiss the city’s lawsuit based on the retroactive immunity statute enacted by now-Vice President Mike Pence.

However, in a 3-0 decision, the Court of Appeals ruled the immunity law does not apply to the gun manufacturers’ supposedly illegal marketing and sales practices alleged in Gary’s lawsuit, including condoning straw purchases, failing to restrict sales to corrupt dealers and making false claims about gun safety.

– Dan Carden in Long-running Gary gun lawsuit may go to trial after Indiana Supreme Court declines to intervene

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78 COMMENTS

      • While I always encourage panic buying in a calm focused manner around Black Friday (new cz pistol and/or sig? Why yes, thank you), I don’t see how you get that in this article. The lawsuit is designed to go after gun manufacturers. Even if it did go through, even if the Supreme Court doesn’t invalidate it, they will just declare chapter 11 at the tail end and we will survive.

        You can’t stop the signal Mal.

        • The city won’t be able to bankrupt anybody with the suit. Their claim is that the city had to waste money investigating crimes due to the supposed illegal actions of the manufacturers. Even if the ‘damages’ were tripled as a punitive award it still wouldn’t be that much. They’ll also have to establish which manufacturers are ‘responsible’ for which crimes, so if there was no weapon recovered then no company can be held responsible.

          What they do hope to accomplish is to start a trend where cities all across the country start suing weapons makers. Normally, seeing as how this suit has been floating in legal limbo for 2 decades, I’d think that not too many other cities would be encouraged to pursue such action, but then there’s no limit to leftists wasting taxpayer money, so you never know.

        • I think you are confusing panic buying with impulse buying. I rarely panic buy but am bad about impulse buying. Hard to pass up some of the sales on black Friday and cyber Monday.

          Kid in a candy store syndrome

        • I encourage panic buying as often as possible. I also encourage panic selling on armslist. Kind of like my own Black Friday sale but in January or February.

        • “What they do hope to accomplish is to start a trend where cities all across the country start suing weapons makers.”

          Yup, they are using the same tactics used against the tobacco manufacturers. There’s one *tiny* difference between tobacco and guns, ‘miner’.

          Do you know what that difference is? It’s about to be explained to you, in just a few months, and in small words that even you will be able to understand. And when the realization comes to what it means, you are going to be very, Very, VERY, *VERY* angry, and there won’t be a damn thing you can do about it but stamp your feet like a petulant 2 year-old and go cry… 😉

    • Refuse to buy anything that come from this state, do not go to this state, BOYCOTT !!! File lawsuits on Auto makers for making cars that kill people ! Hammer makers, Bat makers, they all have killed people many times.

    • The article’s about Indiana.

      Thixo, why do you even bother getting up in the morning? Always the same from you.

      • You do understand that “Thixotropic” is a semi-solid liquid with no constant form, and is temporarily shaped by the last physical contact (Think cool peanut butter. But NOT Chunky! Chunky has nuts)? AKA, no backbone or innate desire to maintain a recognizable (or desirable) shape or form. Kinda like an old, warm Twinkie in milk. Or to paraphrase a classic line from “Cloud Nine”, “You will be what I want you to be”.

        • Twinkies in a bowl with warm milk sounds kinda good on a cold day… 🙂

        • Interesting, Hostess

          Your reply contains an explanation of “thixotropic” that’s almost verbatim of what ‘ol Thixo spat out in her defense several weeks ago. You two wouldn’t be keyboard-related, would you?

          Thixo?

  1. Yeah Gary would be a shining city by the lake if not for the marketing practices of gun companies. All those law abiding people wouldn’t be killing each other over drugs if not for guns. The industries left because guns. I hear the weather sucks because guns too.

    • I have never read a positive story about Gary, Indiana. I knew a girl who lives there and she had worms. You know, coming out of her. Down there. Not making it up, her family had to take antibiotics so they didn’t get infected too.

      • I did not know guns could give you worms down there.

        I have heard that cities can give states Democrat worms that cause major headaches.

        • “I did not know guns could give you worms down there.”
          They can’t, if you leave the Twinkie in. All bets are off though, once it thaws out.

      • “I have never read a positive story about Gary, Indiana.”

        Just fresh out of college, I entered a sweepstakes (well, sorta) contest. First prize was all expense paid one-week vacation in Gary, Ind. Second Prize was two weeks.

        Didn’t have the $50 needed to verify I was the actual winner.

        • If you read G.Gordon Liddy’s autobiography, he describes Gary, where he was sent to run the FBI office there. Even Liddy had nothing good to say about Gary, Indiana…

    • I hit “reply” with a wonderful sarcastic post agreeing with your post. I was almost laughing out loud with it. But – FFS, some people might take me seriously, even with a /sarcasm tag put at the end.

      I’ll just say that TTAG doesn’t seem to be extremely right, but it sure as hell isn’t leftist. Somewhere near centrist, with a nice right tilt?

      In this day and age, anyone who speaks up about gun rights is verbotten from CTRL-Left membership. I heard that Tulsi Gabbard was to be evicted from the party because she’s not a gun control hard liner.

  2. As a result, Lake Superior Judge John Sedia …

    Huh, I never knew one of the Great Lakes has a judge of its own. Does Lake Huron have its own judge as well? If it does, is he/she only judge over the portion of the lake that is United States territory or does his/her jurisdiction include Canada as well?

  3. Sounds like the real waste of taxpayer money isn’t the investigations into the crimes committed by Gary residents, but the pursuit of this legal action. They’ve got virtually no chance of seeing a penny out of it. How do they intend to PROVE that the gun manufacturers ‘condoned straw purchases’ and ‘failed to restrict sales to “corrupt dealers” when a) the firearms aren’t generally distributed directly from the manufacturer to the dealer but rather through distributors, and b) the ‘corrupt dealers’ are breaking federal law and the ATF is there to enforce those laws?

    Typical of leftist activism though. They can’t get their way with free and fair elections and the passage of legislation, they find another way that doesn’t depend on the will of the people supporting it. Hopefully the city’s taxpayers will eventually be paying the manufacturers’ legal fees for their trouble. Of course, the people who are responsible won’t be harmed or punished in any way, their city will just get that much shittier.

  4. Gun makers have literally nothing to do with Gary’s crime. As in Chiraq it’s the lowlife citizenry. I peruse Westforth guns in rural Gary. Good people. Bought a gun and other stuff from them. They have a lot of black customers but I have personally witnessed 2 denials. Is Indiana going leftard?!? I hope not!

  5. First of all…….the ATF and ALL POLICE AGENCIES NATIONWIDE condone straw purchases by NOT PROSECUTING THEM!!!!! The FACT that straw purchases can be made into an issue is a direct result of the lack of prosecution of straw buyers.

    Second, this lawsuit is (probably) a good thing and particularly if Gary wins because it will add to the conflict of laws across the circuits and force the supremes to hear the cases and make a final dicision on manufacturers preemption.

    On the down side, if it makes it to the supremes and they sell us out like traitors it could mean the end of gun sales and manufacturing in the US (at least sales of new guns). Imagine if the ruling defined sales down to the individual transaction between private persons……..that you retained liability for the criminal misuse of a product you sold……..I imagine that would be the end of serial numbers and private sales and ftf sales at your local ffl.

    Imagine if you sold a car and retained liability down the road…………

    • “The FACT that straw purchases can be made into an issue is a direct result of the lack of prosecution of straw buyers.”

      Because they don’t want a case that will overturn the unconstitutional ‘law’. For the more they enforce an unconstitutional law, the better chance it has of being ruled unconstitutional, (as each and every ‘gun control law’ rightfully should have been right after being enacted.)

    • Good point on law enforcement condoning straw purchases. I believe this is one of the issues the fed said they wanted to work on.

  6. “However, in a 3-0 decision, the Court of Appeals ruled the immunity law does not apply to the gun manufacturers’ supposedly illegal marketing and sales practices alleged in Gary’s lawsuit, including condoning straw purchases, failing to restrict sales to corrupt dealers and making false claims about gun safety.”

    BULLSH*T. First of all, firearm manufacturers almost exclusively ship to distributors who in turn sell to dealers. Secondly, the manufacturers have no idea whatsoever that a dealer is corrupt or not. For that is the job of the BATF and FBI. And firearm operation manuals from the manufacturers are included with every new firearm sold. This case is totally without merit and will be shot down by scotus, (if it even makes it to them.)

    • Blaming the manufacturer for a straw purchase doesn’t make any sense. Tracking an individual gun from the manufacturer, to the FFL, and to the buyer is easy. At that point it’s contacting the buyer for a “show and tell” about the gun. How does the manufacturer get the blame? It seems comparable to Ford being sued for a car that was sold to a bad driver.

      • Depending on your purpose, blaming manufacturers makes perfect sense: strategic strike vs. tactical. Shut down the means of production, and you end future mass increase in available product; this limits the battleground. You can then concentrate forces against the remnant. Not only is there money to be made, the product becomes shamed, attracting many to either hide the product, or divest.

        Just as POTG hope the SC will eventually “save” the Second Amendment, the anti-gun mafia hopes lawfare will put an end to fear in their safe spaces.

  7. So the big target seems to be marketing just like the Sandy hook suit. A compliant jury will of course find manufacturers liable for billions in damages but when it is appealed the party will end. The only damage is the financial cost of litigating it.
    The companies should limit spending on defense of the original suit because it’s nearly forgone what the verdict will be. Focus on the bigger appeal where a ruling will step on future cases. They will keep bringing these suits otherwise.
    Unless and until the criminals are named in the suits they don’t have the correct defendants and their position is about as strong as a potato chip.

  8. If it does make it to the supremes as with NY, I just do not see how a legitimate, NON BIASED court could rule against 2A.

    How would they reconcile that with cars? Swimming pools? Knives? Hydrolic wood splitters?
    Cranes? Gasoline? Any manufactured item a baby could choke on?? I just don’t see it.

    If Gary, In takes the position that they have incurred costs as a result of drunks driving your cars and having accidents that cost the municipality and without your (insert mfg) car we would no incurr these costs………….that is where this goes. How does the court reconcile denying a (G-D given, pre existing the constitution natural right) vs a privledge?

    Unless it becomes about destroying the entire foundation of capitalism how do they rule against us? How do they narrow the RIGHT to the specific enumerated item without casting a net over EVERYTHING?

  9. This is more proof of the hostility of the Courts to gun ownership which threatens their absolute power over the people. People become judges because they are power mad Psychopaths that want to control everyone from the time they awake to the time the fall asleep. If anyone thinks for a minute that any of the courts including the Supreme Court is going to come to the aid of gun owners and the Second Amendment they have not researched the rabid anti-gun stance of the courts down through history.

    The law suit in New York does not directly involve gun confiscation or outright bans which gives the courts an orgasm every time they get to bless such laws. Its a case come directly from heaven for the Supreme Court as they win no matter which way they rule and its a prime opportunity to fake support for the Second Amendment since in reality it does not involve a ban on the purchase or possession of assault rifles or high capacity magazines. The only problem is most gun owners are not intelligent enough to see they are going to “be had” big time.

    Kavenough has already stabbed gun owners in the back by declaring that Reagan’s machine gun ban was a good idea leading one to believe he certainly does not like semi-auto assault rifles any better as they are only a half step away from full auto arms.

    This current case (suing firearms mfg’s) is more proof that the gun hating Courts will simply ignore prior law and seek to exert more absolute power over the gun industry which is simply a back door plot to ban assault rifles without actually passing any laws banning them while with a completely innocent face solemnly claiming they support the Second Amendment.

    The anti gunners know that even if they lose the court cases the liability for selling assault rifles becomes so great that the firearms manufactures will have no choice but to only sell them to the military and the jack booted thugs in black uniforms, the police forces. Colt Manufacturing was the first firearms industry to fall early prey to what the courts are up to as they were the first to see the hand writing on the wall. which was to stop selling such guns to the general public. If the courts let law suits against the firearms companies take place by anyone who wants to sue them Colt was way ahead of the game and the hypocrisy of the Courts pretending to protect the Second Amendment.

  10. When the gun companies win can they sue the city for slander/libel? And for the expenses of defending themselves? The city may find themselves in a jam as they start the investigation they will need to proceed. Some records may not be legally accessible.

    • Yes they can.
      When the Sandy Hook lawsuit was all over, the families of the victims where on the hook for MILLIONS of dollars in defendants legal fees/costs. Funny how Every Clown for Gun Safety cut and run when the case was lost, leaving the victims to deal with the costs. Another example of how Mikey Blum(inIdiot)burg is a TOTAL POS, on ALL LEVELS.
      Blumburg and ETFGS lied to the families, convicing them a case against the gun manufactures was win-able, then left the families holding the bag of shit.
      Oh, and that walking/talking turd Hildabeast need not wonder why she lost in 2016. Her position that manufacturers SHOULD be held responsible helped do her in. The audio of that hag laughing after getting a rapist off whos actions rendered a little girl sterile also didn’t help her chances.
      Hell has a special level for scum like the Clintons, and their cronies/toadies.

  11. This is no different than going after car companies because of an drunk driver related fatality. Who should take responsibility? Completely asinine!

  12. You from Indiana Gary someplace. Used to was wops now it Detroit City, West. A-A’s.
    Wop=with out papers it ain’t Disneyland but damn close.
    A-A’s=Afro- Americans that ain’t been in Africa in the last six generations.

  13. If this CRAP is allowed to stand, what’s next? Suing dinner utensil manufacturers for making people FAT? OR the car manufacturers for making a “product” that can run over and kill people. How about baseball bat companies..The “list can go on and on.
    The only thing this TRAVESTY accomplishes, is making lawyers rich with frivolous lawsuits, and courts tied up that should be trying and prosecuting REAL criminals.

  14. Gary is really just another , actually stinking , extension of Chicago , if it wasn’t for Lake Michigan forcing you around , nobody would pass through the shithole on purpose !

  15. this may be the stupidest thing i’ve hear in a long time. to blame the maker of a tool for the way some one uses it but then dems are not known for being real sane lately

  16. To this day, I’ve never heard of a gun jumping up and shooting someone of it’s own accord.
    There’s always some thug pulling the trigger.

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