Anderson Herald Bulletin
The following are among the worst of many bad kinds of legislation:
• New laws that seek to deal with an isolated case.
• New laws that seek to satisfy a political agenda.
• New laws that endanger public health.
With House Bill 1235, which became law in March, the Indiana Legislature’s Republican supermajority has hit the bad-law trifecta.
The new law will bar Indiana cities, towns and other political subdivisions from suing gun manufacturers, sellers, dealers or trade associations for any reason.
You read that right — the state will forbid municipal lawsuits against the gun industry while still allowing such suits against other industries.
But here’s an even stranger twist to the legislation: It’s retroactive 25 years, all the way back to Aug. 27, 1999.
That date might sound arbitrary, but it’s not. The GOP’s primary motivation for pushing the law through was to render moot the City of Gary’s longstanding lawsuit against a cadre of American gun manufacturers and sellers. That suit was filed Aug. 30, 1999, by a community reeling from gun violence.
Indiana Statehouse Republicans are clearly in bed with the gun industry, choosing its interests over Hoosiers’ right to litigate against bad actors in business and industry who willfully endanger the public.
As noted by Paul Helmke — a former mayor of Fort Wayne and a professor in the school of public and environmental affairs at Indiana University — in an opinion piece published by the Indiana Capitol Chronicle, “Five of the defendants in Gary’s lawsuit sit on the board of the trade organization that has endorsed and promoted this bill.”
The Gary lawsuit was based on a police investigation that exposed local gun shops for selling firearms and ammunition to agents posing as people who are ineligible to own guns, such as underaged patrons and convicted felons.
The new law undermines the state judicial system by, essentially, rendering gun shops and manufacturers immune to litigation from local government bodies.
Indiana isn’t alone in protecting the gun industry. More than 30 other states, acting on signals from the national Republican Party, have enacted similar legislation.
There’s a chance the new Indiana law could be struck down by the courts. Next month, a Lake County Superior Court judge will hear arguments over whether to dismiss Gary’s lawsuit in light of the legislation. Previously, appellate courts have twice deemed that the lawsuit has merits.
Here’s hoping the Lake County court, for the third time, will find merit in the Gary case, exposing House Bill 1235 for what it is — a piece of legislation that defines bad law.
