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Judge decides Gary can sue gun dealers
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Judge decides Gary can sue gun dealers
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Court of Appeals has cleared the way for the city of Gary to sue three Lake County businesses which, the city argues, have become through their weapons sales a public nuisance by fueling crime.
The court's ruling, announced Friday, said a Lake Superior Court judge was wrong dismissing Gary's entire civil lawsuit last year.
It said Gary's lawsuit can proceed against three of 21 entities originally named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The original defendants were gun manufacturers and distributors, five local dealers and three trade associations. The lawsuit accused all 21 parties of selling weapons to gang members and others who were not entitled to own them.
It seeks damages for gun violence that has plagued the northwestern city for decades.
The three businesses the appellate court specified should remain defendants in the lawsuit are Cash Indiana of Burns Harbor and Lake Station, Ameri-Pawn of Lake Station and Blythe's Sport Shop of Valparaiso.
Gary Mayor Scott King filed the lawsuit more than two years ago, saying he wanted to force the local businesses to stop marketing weapons to inner-city gangs.
Defense lawyers for the companies successfully argued to Lake Superior Court Judge James Richards that the lawsuit was an unconstitutional intrusion on interstate commerce.
The judge dismissed the lawsuit in its entirety.
While the appellate court ruled Friday that Richards was correct when he dismissed the lawsuit against most of the original defendants, it said Cash Indiana, Ameri-Pawn and Blythe's could still face trial and civil penalties.
The court said the three businesses could still be sued because the city of Gary alleges there is evidence that illegal weapons sales known as straw purchases took place there.
A straw purchase is defined as the purchase of a gun by a person with a clean criminal background who intends to transfer the gun to someone forbidden by federal law to own one, usually a convicted criminal.
Gary's lawsuit alleges undercover police officers conducted straw purchases at the three dealerships.
Telephone messages were left yesterday seeking comment from King, Blythe's Sports Shop and Cash America. An employee who answered the telephone at Ameri-Pawn said the store's owner was out of town and unavailable for comment
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2002/09/22/in092202s280875.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Court of Appeals has cleared the way for the city of Gary to sue three Lake County businesses which, the city argues, have become through their weapons sales a public nuisance by fueling crime.
The court's ruling, announced Friday, said a Lake Superior Court judge was wrong dismissing Gary's entire civil lawsuit last year.
It said Gary's lawsuit can proceed against three of 21 entities originally named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The original defendants were gun manufacturers and distributors, five local dealers and three trade associations. The lawsuit accused all 21 parties of selling weapons to gang members and others who were not entitled to own them.
It seeks damages for gun violence that has plagued the northwestern city for decades.
The three businesses the appellate court specified should remain defendants in the lawsuit are Cash Indiana of Burns Harbor and Lake Station, Ameri-Pawn of Lake Station and Blythe's Sport Shop of Valparaiso.
Gary Mayor Scott King filed the lawsuit more than two years ago, saying he wanted to force the local businesses to stop marketing weapons to inner-city gangs.
Defense lawyers for the companies successfully argued to Lake Superior Court Judge James Richards that the lawsuit was an unconstitutional intrusion on interstate commerce.
The judge dismissed the lawsuit in its entirety.
While the appellate court ruled Friday that Richards was correct when he dismissed the lawsuit against most of the original defendants, it said Cash Indiana, Ameri-Pawn and Blythe's could still face trial and civil penalties.
The court said the three businesses could still be sued because the city of Gary alleges there is evidence that illegal weapons sales known as straw purchases took place there.
A straw purchase is defined as the purchase of a gun by a person with a clean criminal background who intends to transfer the gun to someone forbidden by federal law to own one, usually a convicted criminal.
Gary's lawsuit alleges undercover police officers conducted straw purchases at the three dealerships.
Telephone messages were left yesterday seeking comment from King, Blythe's Sports Shop and Cash America. An employee who answered the telephone at Ameri-Pawn said the store's owner was out of town and unavailable for comment
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2002/09/22/in092202s280875.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
When Clinton left office they gave him a 21 gun salute. Its a damn shame they all missed....
If you will blame gun makers for every shooting then blame car maker for every car accident.
If you will blame gun makers for every shooting then blame car maker for every car accident.
I think its a shame that something like this happened. Rather than prosecute the store owner for unknowingly selling firearms to someone that is not fit (via a straw purchase) why not track down the person that bought the gun and prosecute him/her.
on the other hand...if the stores were selling to gang members and actually were taking part in this...then, the hell with them..we don't need that kind of dealer anyway.
If you will blame gun makers for every shooting then blame car maker for every car accident.
This case has been absolutley gutted by the Court of Appeals ruling upholding virtually all of Judge Richards findings. If the lead counsel was not the mayor's former law partner, it would be over. (Since his firm has hundreds of thousands of dollars in politically related contracts, he will probably go forward to the bitter end.) No big bucks or big precedent here.
redcedars
- Life NRA Member
"If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878