Indiana Courts Bury Gary's 26-Year Gun Lawsuit

Indiana's Supreme Court slammed the door on one of the longest-running legal shakedowns in American history — and Bloomberg's favorite gun-control newsroom, The Trace, is in mourning.

On May 21, the Indiana Supreme Court refused to hear Gary's appeal, ending a 26-year-old lawsuit the city filed in 1999 against the country's largest firearm manufacturers. The case is dead. Gunmakers win.

Here's what The Trace won't tell you straight: Gary's lawsuit was never about public safety. It was a coordinated legal strategy — replicated in cities like New York, San Francisco, and Newark — designed to drown gun manufacturers in litigation costs until they either surrendered to backdoor gun control or went bankrupt. No legislation required. No voter consent needed. Just lawfare.

Indiana Republicans saw it coming and acted. The state legislature passed a preemption law explicitly barring city and county governments from suing firearm manufacturers — and made it retroactive, killing Gary's case at the root. The Indiana Supreme Court confirmed that law means exactly what it says.

The Trace frames this as the "GOP snuffing out" a righteous crusade. Translation: elected representatives stopped an unelected city government from weaponizing the court system against a federally protected industry. That's not suppression — that's democracy working.

Congress already recognized this exact threat and passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) in 2005, shielding manufacturers from frivolous liability suits. Indiana's preemption law adds a state-level brick to that wall. Layers matter when the anti-gun lobby keeps finding new angles of attack.

Gary's lawyers argued the retroactive law was unconstitutional. Four courts disagreed. Twenty-six years, and the anti-gun lobby has nothing to show for it in Indiana.

The Trace's crocodile tears over this outcome reveal the entire agenda. Their editorial mission — funded in large part by Michael Bloomberg's money machine — is to normalize the idea that gun manufacturers bear moral and legal responsibility for the criminal acts of third parties. Destroy that legal firewall, and every FFL, every manufacturer, every distributor faces existential liability every time a criminal pulls a trigger.

Indiana held the line. Other states should take notes.

**What you should do:** Find out whether your state has a firearms preemption law protecting manufacturers and dealers from municipal lawfare. If it doesn't, call your state rep today and demand one. The Gary playbook isn't dead — it will be tried again somewhere else.