Judge: Cincinnati cannot sue out-of-state gun associations

Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Ruehlman ruled Friday that Cincinnati cannot sue non-Ohio gun manufacturers locally. If the city wants to sue the gun associations — the city sued the National Shooting Sports Foundation and American Shooting Sports Council — it would have to file the suit in the states where the associations are based, Ruehlman said.

Ruehlman granted a motion by the gun associations to be dismissed from the suit the city filed against Beretta U.S.A. Corp. and other gun manufacturers.

The city sued gun manufacturers in 1999, accusing them of being partly responsible for gun-related violence — and liable for the city's cost to deal with that violence. The original suit named 15 handgun makers, three trade associations and a distributor as defendants, claiming they were negligent for allowing children and criminals to obtain guns and for failing to design safe guns.

Ruehlman disagreed, ruling that people — not guns — kill people. That decision was appealed and the Appeals Court agreed with Ruehlman, with the judges noting that blaming a gun for violence would be akin to blaming a match for a deliberately set fire.

But the city appealed the decision to the Ohio Supreme Court, which ruled 4-3 earlier this year the city can sue the gun makers and ordered the case to be revived. It is set for trial Dec. 22 before Ruehlman.

Read the whole story in the Cincinnati Post.

OFCC PAC Commentary:
Thanks to your hard work and votes, inevitable appeals to Ruehlman's second ruling on this case can be guaranteed a fair and impartial hearing before the Supreme Court.

Had Tim Black been elected, whose campaign was supported heavily by the lawyers representing the city of Cincinnati in this case were certain they'd get Black's vote.