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from the Indianapolis Star
http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/2/034481-4722-009.html
http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/2/034481-4722-009.html
Court: Gun owners may be sued
State ruling revives suit against pair whose son used their weapon to kill sheriff's deputy.
By Shannon Tan
[email protected]
April 8, 2003
Gun owners must safely store firearms and can be held liable for failing to do so, the Indiana Supreme Court said Monday in a landmark ruling.
In a 5-0 decision, the court reversed the Allen Circuit Court's dismissal of a 1999 lawsuit against the owners of a handgun used to kill an Allen County sheriff's deputy.
Deputy Eryk Heck, 26, was killed in a shootout with convicted felon Timothy Stoffer on Aug. 15, 1997. Stoffer, 27, who also died, took the handgun from his parents. The Heck family sued Raymond and Patricia Stoffer, asserting the couple knew their drug-addicted son was fleeing from police and failed to safeguard the gun.
The trial court and appeals court ruled that gun ownership was a constitutionally protected right. But the state's highest court found that the issue of negligence should be left to a jury.
"Indiana gun owners are guaranteed the right to bear arms," wrote Chief Justice Randall Shepard, "but this right does not entitle owners to impose on their fellow citizens all the external human and economic costs associated with their ownership."
Only two other states -- Kansas and Montana -- have issued similar rulings, but those cases involved shootings by juveniles, said Daniel Vice, attorney for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, based in Washington.
"This ruling today is the most important of them all," he said. "You have a duty to store your gun properly and keep it away from people like criminals who might use it."
More than 250,000 firearms are stolen each year. Stolen firearms are used in 35 percent of crimes involving guns. In Indiana, gun violence resulted in more than 4,000 deaths and 8,800 injuries from 1993 to 1997, according to the latest figures from the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Don Heck, Eryk's father, said he would continue to pursue the lawsuit against the Stoffers.
"People who own weapons and guns (need) to keep them secure, away from other people, and know where they are at all times," said the Fort Wayne retiree. "I own a gun. It's put away and locked up."
But Jerry Wehner, president of the Indiana State Rifle and Pistol Association, warned that the decision could set a dangerous precedent.
"If I come and steal your car and I commit a crime with it and in the course of the crime, the police officer is killed, do you feel it's right that the (officer's family) come back and sue you?" he asked. "Where does it stop?"
Daniel Hawk, an attorney for the Stoffers, said he had not read the entire decision and could not comment. A message left for the Stoffers was not returned.
Court documents show that in a nine-year period, Timothy Stoffer was charged with resisting law enforcement, battery, burglary, drug possession, forgery and escape. He also had stolen and forged checks from his parents' business, but they allowed him to keep the keys to their home.
The gun was kept in an armchair in Raymond Stoffer's bedroom but was hidden in the attic when the grandchildren visited, according to court documents.
"The Stoffers exercised due care to protect their grandchildren and valuables but failed to safeguard the gun from a 'mentally disturbed, habitual and violent offender (with) free access to the premises,' " Shepard wrote in the decision.
The Indiana Supreme Court has yet to rule on a lawsuit brought by the city of Gary against gun manufacturers and dealers. Gary, one of about 33 cities and counties across the country that have sued the gun industry, alleges that gun dealers have funneled firearms to criminals and contends that juveniles should be held liable.
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote Wednesday on a National Rifle Association-backed bill Wednesday that would give the gun industry immunity from lawsuits brought by gun-violence victims, including the Gary suit.
Copyright 2003 IndyStar.com.