Attorney General Todd Rokita is asking the Indiana Court of Appeals to dismiss Gary's lawsuit against gun manufacturers and sellers. The lawsuit began in 1999, as the city of Gary tried to hold gun makers and sellers liable for gun violence in the city.
Last year, the Indiana General Assembly passed a law prohibiting such lawsuits from local governments, saying they can only be brought by the state's attorney general. But a Lake Superior Court Judge ruled the new law didn't apply to the ongoing lawsuit, saying that "would violate years of vested rights and constitutional guarantees." In a brief filed last week, Rokita argued that ruling was incorrect, since the language of the law prohibits local governments from "maintaining" lawsuits, not just bringing new ones.
In a press release, Rokita called Gary's lawsuit "a swipe at Hoosiers’ Second Amendment rights." He accused the city of "trying to use the courts rather than the legislature to enact gun policies."
