Pol warns of risks of legislatively terminating Gary gun lawsuit

State Sen. Rodney Pol Jr., D-Chesterton, who works as an attorney for the Steel City, said House Bill 1235 is a blatant attempt by the Republican supermajorities in the Indiana House and Senate to give a powerful industry legal immunity even for unlawful actions.

"It is a complete overreach of the Legislature into the judicial branch, violating our fundamental principle of separation of powers," Pol said.

"If we pass this bill, it sends a clear message: If you don't like that you're being held accountable for your actions, come to the Legislature and we can change the rules."

The city's lawsuit, initially filed in 1999, seeks to hold a who's who of gun manufacturers and retailers financially responsible for the high cost of violence over the years in Gary allegedly connected to their products.

House Bill 1235 would terminate the lawsuit by retroactively prohibiting it from being filed in the first place, even through discovery already is underway.

It also would bar every local unit of government in the state from launching or maintaining most civil actions against gun companies, and permit only Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican gun-rights advocate, to file any such claims in the future.

"While the Second Amendment is celebrated as the right to defend ourselves, our communities are being deprived of the right to defend themselves," Pol said.

Pol emphasized that he strongly supports Hoosiers who choose to exercise their Second Amendment rights. But he said there's no right to unlawfully distribute firearms to cities plagued by crime.

"Since the 1990s, gun manufacturers turned a blind eye to illegal gun sales, prioritizing profits over public safety. Police and prosecutors have tried valiantly to stop gun violence through the criminal justice system. However, the flood of guns through straw sales and other means have made that a momentous task," Pol said.

"We've seen a 43% increase in gun homicides since 2015. This demonstrates that only using the criminal justice system to address gun violence is failing. That’s exactly why Gary filed the lawsuit in the first place; to protect itself and its citizens."

Corrine Youngs, policy director for the attorney general, told the Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee Tuesday that Rokita views the Gary gun lawsuit, and similar litigation filed by Indiana local governments, as "nuisance" lawsuits that should not go forward.

"Public nuisance suits have turned into a weapon in the arsenal of municipalities, converting all matter of serious individual harms into public rights in order to achieve socially desirable ends," Youngs said.

"The attorney general represents the state of the Indiana and serves as the single legal voice for the state. It makes sense, in these regulatory situations, to have one decision-maker for the state of Indiana, rather than a slew of municipalities filing various lawsuits on what they perceive, based on their own ideological and political preference, to be a public nuisance. It's not the role of local governments to regulate policy through litigation."

In response, Pol asked Youngs what the attorney general's office has done to protect Hoosiers from the harms alleged in Gary's lawsuit.

"We've not been involved in this case," Youngs said. "The attorney general believes this lawsuit should not continue."

"But you haven't even looked at it yet," Pol replied. "Essentially what you're saying is we want to take over the case, but we're never going to prosecute, or bring a civil suit, against the gun industry for lawful or unlawful action."

"He probably wouldn't," Youngs said about Rokita's propensity to ever sue a gun company.

Gary Mayor Eddie Melton, a Democratic former state senator, also has urged his onetime colleagues to scuttle the legislation, instead of scuttling Gary's lawsuit — a position shared by Democratic Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter.

"I am in full support of Gary Mayor Eddie Melton's position on House Bill 1235 and I strongly urge the members of the Indiana Senate to reject House Bill 1235 in its entirety," Carter said.

"Furthermore, I ask our honorable Governor Eric Holcomb to intercede and to use the authority of his office to reject this bill, as well. Simply put, the citizens of Gary deserve their day in court."

The sponsors of the legislation have made clear their intent is to retroactively terminate Gary's lawsuit at the request of the gun industry defendants after a similar 2015 attempt to do so ultimately did not succeed.

The full Senate is poised to debate the proposal next week and then vote on whether to keep it on track toward the desk of Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb to be signed into law or vetoed.