The TIMES (Hammond, IN)

Friday
Jan. 14, 3900
Publication date: 01/13/2000
Gary mayor finds little support for stand on gun legislation
Legislators, including those from Northwest Indiana, impervious to
impassioned testimony from mayor of city with high homicide rate.
TERRY BURNS
Times Statehouse Bureau Chief
INDIANAPOLIS — Claiming that people in towns and cities across Indiana
need even more protection from the threat of handgun violence, Gary
Mayor Scott King urged state lawmakers on Wednesday to reject
legislation that would ban communities from suing gun manufacturers.
Despite King’s arguments, the committee approved the legislation along
party lines and sent it to the full Senate for consideration. The final
vote showed six Republicans in favor and four Democrats opposed.
Those opposing the lawsuit ban included state Sens. Frank Mrvan,
D-Hammond, and William Alexa, D-Valparaiso.
Alexa, a lawyer, said he opposed the bill because it “takes away any
right of citizens to redress a grievance in court. It’s doesn’t make any
sense to me.”
While the measure could win approval in the Republican-controlled
Senate, it isn’t expected to make it through the Democratic-controlled
House.
At least 13 other states, including Maine, South Dakota, Montana,
Wyoming and Texas, have passed similar bans on gun-related lawsuits. So
far, no Midwestern state has enacted legislation.
Last August, Gary joined a growing number of cities that have filed
lawsuits aimed at holding the nation’s firearms industry responsible to
growing handgun violence.
“It’s handguns that are killing the people of Gary. That’s what this
issue is all about from the perspective of the City of Gary,” King said
during testimony before the Senate Corrections, Criminal and Civil
Procedures Committee.
The Senate bill, sponsored by committee Chairman Robert Meeks,
R-LaGrange, would ban the state or any county, city, town or school
district in Indiana from taking gun and ammunition manufacturers to
court to seek financial damages for gun-related violence. The measure
also would shield gun dealers and trade groups, like the National Rifle
Association, from similar legal action.
Meeks, a retired state trooper, said the legislation is a way to protect
constitutional guarantees of the right to bear arms.
But gun control advocates have labeled the effort a “vintage NRA”
attempt to close the courthouse doors to local governments seeking a
solution to gun violence in the streets.
Although the number of murders in Gary has steadily declined since King
first took office, the mayor said his city still maintains the
unenviable distinction of having the highest per capita homicide rate in
the country.
Last year, 75 people were murdered in Gary, nearly 77 percent of them by
killers wielding a handgun. Among the victims was King’s 17-year-old
nephew, Blake King. The teen-ager was gunned down last June after a
fight outside his home. That same day, three other people were murdered
by handguns in the city.
“What (the Gary lawsuit) is all about is having the opportunity of using
every legal means at our disposal to reduce an unacceptably high rate of
violent crime and death in our city,” King said.
The lawsuit was not about money or trying to bankrupt gun dealers or
manufacturers, he said.
One of those not buying King’s explanation was Lester Blythe, co-owner
of Blythe’s Sports Shop, which has stores in Valparaiso and Griffith.
Blythe’s was among the gun dealers named in the Gary lawsuit.
Blythe urged lawmakers to approve the lawsuit ban, claiming Gary and
other cities are “picking on some dealers who have very little resources
to fight” a costly legal action.
Gary is simply trying to fill its coffers by taking on the gun industry,
he added.
Jim Tomes, a truck driver and gun collector from downstate Wadesville,
urged lawmakers to block efforts to sue gun makers.
“It’s shameful and it’s nonsense,” he said. “Instead of suing gun
manufacturers, we ought to be thanking them.”
“If (the lawsuits) aren’t stopped now, what other industry are they
going to target next?” asked Dick Mercier, president of the Indiana
Sportsmen’s Roundtable.
Besides Gary, 29 other cities and counties, including Chicago, Miami and
Cincinnati, have taken gunmakers to court. Cincinnati’s effort was dealt
a serious blow in October when a judge tossed out the lawsuit, ruling
the misuse of firearms was beyond the control of gunmakers.
“It’s the erosion of the Constitutional guarantees that really bothers
me and the fact that people are not willing to take responsibility for
their actions. They always want to blame somebody or something,” Meeks
said of his reasoning for proposing the legislation.
“A gun doesn’t kill anyone unless there’s somebody at the other end
pulling the trigger,” he added. “Whatever happened to personal
accountability? Why in the world would anyone want to blame an inept
object like a firearm for their own behavior? I don’t think that’s
right.”
Joe Sudbay, director of state legislation for the Center to Prevent Gun
Violence, said it was ironic that a Republican lawmaker would propose a
bill that meddles in the affairs of local governments and prohibits them
from “preventing gun deaths and insuring public safety.
“But there’s a lot of hypocrisy on the gun issue.”
Terry Burns can be reached by phone at (317) 637-9078.
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