The Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday declined 4-1 to hear the City of Gary's appeal in its long-running lawsuit against the domestic firearms industry, ending a legal campaign that began in August 1999 and targeted Smith & Wesson, Glock, Beretta, and dozens of other manufacturers and distributors. The Indiana Capital Chronicle reported the court's order gave no explanation for the denial, with Justice Christopher Goff the lone dissenter.

The decision closes the final chapter on what had become one of the country's last surviving municipal lawsuits against gun makers. Gary originally sued in 1999, alleging that major manufacturers and local distributors negligently structured their distribution chains in ways that facilitated illegal straw purchases, thereby contributing to crime and imposing public costs on the city. Brady, the national gun-control organization formerly known as the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, represented the city throughout the decades-long litigation.

The suit survived for more than two decades despite the 2005 federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which broadly shields manufacturers from liability for crimes committed with legally sold firearms, because Indiana courts kept it alive on state-law grounds. The Indiana legislature responded in 2024 with a revised statute reserving the exclusive right to sue the firearms industry to the state attorney general — effectively stripping municipalities of the ability to pursue such claims. The Indiana Court of Appeals relied on that law last December in a unanimous ruling dismissing Gary's case. Thursday's transfer denial by the Supreme Court leaves that appellate ruling intact and final, with no further state court avenues open to the city.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, whose office intervened to support dismissal, applauded the outcome as ending Gary's "relentless campaign to harass the firearms industry." The National Shooting Sports Foundation, which championed the 2024 state legislation, also praised the decision. NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence Keane called it "a tremendous day for the rule of law, common sense, and the firearm industry." The trade association had argued for years that the Gary suit was precisely the kind of litigation Congress intended to foreclose with the PLCAA, and that Indiana's state-level reservation statute provided an independent and adequate basis for dismissal.

The ruling caps a wave of similar municipal lawsuits that proliferated in the late 1990s, almost all of which have since been dismissed or settled. Chicago's 1998 lawsuit against gunmakers was resolved in 2004; Los Angeles, New Orleans, and several other cities reached settlements or had claims thrown out. Gary had been one of the few that managed to survive this long. With the Indiana Supreme Court's transfer denial, no further appeal is available.