November 18, 2004 10:43 AM EST
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed two lawsuits that accused gun manufacturers of creating a "public nuisance" by knowingly letting their weapons fall into the hands of criminals.
The lawsuits, filed by the city of Chicago and victims of gun violence, accused the gunmakers of pouring weapons into the Chicago area that kill people and lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in law-enforcement and health care costs.
But the court ruled there was no legal basis for holding the manufacturers responsible.
Justice Rita Garman, writing the court's opinion in both cases, said the defendants, which also included gun distributors and suburban Chicago gun shops, had not created the "public nuisance" as claimed in the lawsuits.
"The mere fact that defendants' conduct in their plants, offices, and stores puts guns into the stream of commerce does not state a claim for public nuisance," Garman wrote. "It is the presence and use of the guns within the city of Chicago that constitutes the alleged nuisance, not the activities at the defendants' various places of business."
Allowing the lawsuits would have been a major victory for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and the families of people killed in gang warfare. But gun advocates argued the cases threatened the Second Amendment by standing in the way of people wishing to purchase a legal product.
Among the defendants in the lawsuits were Smith & Wesson, Beretta USA Corp. and Sturm Ruger & Co.
"It looks like a blanket dismissal," said William Howard, lawyer for Chuck's Gun Shop, a suburban retailer that sold a gun eventually used in the 1998 gang killing of a Chicago police officer.
Similar lawsuits had been filed nationwide targeting alleged health and safety breaches caused by guns. An earlier wave of product-liability lawsuits - claims similar to those against the tobacco industry - failed.
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