Chicago took a decidedly different approach as the Windy City descended into violence and chaos.
The city prefers to expend its energy into going after the gun industry, a lawful sector of the economy that is protected by the Second Amendment. After all, it is easier to blame an inanimate object for your shortcomings than the relatively few people who commit the vast majority of crimes.
City leaders spout the notion that the metropolis is the victim of an insidious ring of gun dealers who flood the streets with illicit weapons. A convenient target is nearby Indiana, which has far less stringent firearms regulations than the burdens imposed by Chicago and the state of Illinois.
For the record, Indiana only has a fraction of the violent crime that Chicago suffers from.
City leaders set their sights on Westford Sports, a gun dealer in Gary, Indiana. These grandstanding politicians charged that the lawful business “engaged in a pattern of illegal sales that has resulted in the flow of hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal firearms into the City of Chicago.”
Thus, a lawsuit was filed against the business in April 2021.
Anti-gun politicians must have shared congratulatory toasts over the brilliant idea of deflecting blame to an out-of-state firearms dealer. Only, that scheme had now been derailed.
On Thursday, a Cook County Circuit Court judge ruled that Chicago has no jurisdiction to sue Indiana’s Westforth Sports. Judge Clare J. Quish was clear in her decision.
Noting that Chicago attorneys claimed that straw purchases in Indiana led to guns on its streets, Quish observed that there was no direct connection between Westforth Sports and Illinois. The link was not sufficient “to support the exercise of specific personal jurisdiction over Westforth.”
Therefore, the suit had no legs to stand on.
The ruling agreed with the position taken by attorneys for Westforth Sports, who argued that the allegations concerned business between the store and Indiana residents. This would, as it turned out, make those transactions outside of the purview of Chicago officials.
Westforth attorney Timothy Rudd expressed satisfaction with the Cook County court. He declared that Judge Quish “properly found that the Constitutional due process does not allow an out-of-state firearms retailer to be hauled into court in Illinois unless claims against it arise out of or relate to the retailer’s own contacts with the state.”
As for Chicago, attorney Alla Lefkowitz said that the city has “not yet had an opportunity to review the decision.” He added that the city “fully intends to press on with its case against Westforth.”
Chicago police in 2017 called Westforth Sports the third-largest supplier of guns used in crimes committed in the city. For the period from 2013 to 2016, officials said that 2.3% of all guns involved in crimes recovered in the city originated at the Indiana store.
As is the case with many cities looking to deflect blame for their own crisis of violence, Chicago sought to pin responsibility onto those who have no relation to its internal issues. These areas have a pattern of passing sweeping unconstitutional gun bans and then pursuing those in far-flung places who still respect the Second Amendment.
It is politically expedient to defer culpability to those who live elsewhere. But, as the judge wisely ruled, the basis of such actions is the legal equivalent of quicksand.
