Young v. Bryco Arms et al., Illinois Supreme Court, November 18, 2004 [dismissing two lawsuits which had accused gunmakers and suburban gun shops of creating a public nuisance by putting guns in the metropolitan market knowing they would end up in the city of Chicago, which bans handguns]. Excerpt:

In sum, we hold that plaintiffs' public nuisance claims against both the manufacturer and the dealer defendants must be dismissed. Even granting, arguendo, that plaintiffs can establish that a public right has been infringed upon by defendants' conduct, their allegations of negligence are not supported by any recognized duty and we have declined their invitation to recognize such a duty. Further, their allegations of intentional conduct are an insufficient basis for public nuisance liability as a matter of law. City of Chicago, slip op. at 64. Finally, the defendants' conduct is not a legal cause of the alleged nuisance because the claimed harm is the aggregate result of numerous unforeseeable intervening criminal acts by third parties not under defendants' control.

Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.