CHICAGO — A northern Indiana gun shop police have called a key supplier of Chicago’s criminal firearms market announced this week it is closing its doors in what gun violence prevention advocates say is a win for public safety in a city that grapples with thousands of shootings a year.
Westforth Sports Inc. in Gary, Indiana, located 10 miles from the Illinois border, is liquidating its assets and has not finalized a timeline for closure, attorney Timothy Rudd said Friday. Store owner Earl Westforth, who has been in business for more than 50 years, is retiring, Rudd said.
“For years, Westforth was the No. 1 supplier of out-of-state crime guns recovered by Chicago police, fueling our city’s gun violence crisis,” Chicago city attorney Mary Richardson-Lowry said in a statement Friday, calling the store’s closing a “significant victory.”
The development comes after Chicago sued Westforth Sports in 2021, claiming the gun store “engaged in a pattern of illegal sales that has resulted in the flow of hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal firearms” into Chicago, according to the lawsuit filed in Cook County.
Attorneys for the gun store moved to dismiss the case last year, arguing the city’s suit concerned dealings between the gun shop and Indiana residents. A Cook County judge dismissed the suit in May, finding Westforth’s contacts with Illinois were not sufficient for the court to exercise jurisdiction in the case.
The city responded in June by requesting the court modify its order. The city also requested leave to file an amended complaint that establishes a “direct causal connection” between Westforth Sports and Chicago, including allegations that employees knew guns were being straw-purchased for the purpose of re-sale in Chicago. Attorneys for Westforth Sports opposed the motion, and a status conference in the case is expected next month.
Rudd said he could not comment on why the store is not staying in business in the wake of Westforth’s retirement. He said the store’s closure is unrelated to the litigation.
“The truth is, Westforth Sports could continue to stay in business as long as it wants to, and Earl is choosing to go out on his own terms and his own time,” Rudd said.
Alla Lefkowitz, senior director of affirmative litigation for Everytown Law, a gun violence prevention advocacy group, attributed the closure to heightened scrutiny of Westforth Sports in recent years.
“The fact that Westforth Sports will shutter its doors is a testament to the importance of holding bad actors in the gun industry accountable,” Lefkowitz said, adding, “There is no question that Westforth’s decision to cease operations will make Chicagoans safer from the threat of gun violence.”
Westforth Sports tied to 850 crime guns in Chicago and 40 federal criminal prosecutions: Lawsuit
The city’s lawsuit alleges Westforth Sports repeatedly broke federal gun laws and ignored clear signs of straw purchasing and gun trafficking, such as high volume, repetitive and multiple-sale transactions involving duplicate or near-duplicate firearms.
According to the suit, Westforth Sports “feeds the market for illegal firearms by knowingly selling its products to an ever-changing roster of gun traffickers and straw (sham) purchasers who transport Westforth Sports’ guns from Indiana into Chicago, where they are resold to individuals who cannot legally possess firearms, including convicted felons and drug traffickers.”
A 2017 Chicago Police Department report on available gun traces between 2013 and 2016 found Westforth Sports was the third-largest federally licensed source of crime guns in the Chicago area, tied to 2.3% of all recovered crime guns. About 45% of the Westforth Sports guns recovered during that period had a “time-to-crime” of less than three years, and 20% had a time-to-crime of less than a year, according to the report. “Time-to-crime” is the period between the purchase of a gun and its recovery by police in a crime.
Studies of firearms recovered by law enforcement over a longer period — between 2009 and 2016 — “consistently rank Westforth as the highest out-of-state supplier of crime guns in the city, responsible for more than 850 recovered crime guns over this period,” according to the complaint.
A review of federal prosecutions from December 2014 to April 2021 for illegal gun purchases in the Northern District of Indiana revealed approximately 44% of the cases involved sales at Westforth Sports, the lawsuit says.
Firearms purchased at Westforth Sports have been associated with homicides, assaults, domestic violence and more, according to Everytown. The advocacy group says the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives inspected Westforth Sports at least six times between 2010 and 2021, and each inspection resulted in violations — many of which were repeats.
In court filings, attorneys for Westforth have argued the company sells firearms in Indiana to Indiana residents, in compliance with state and federal law.
The majority of illegally used or possessed firearms recovered in Chicago are traced back to states with less regulation over firearms, such as Indiana and Mississippi, according to the 2017 report. Indiana is the primary source for approximately one out of every five crime guns, the report found.
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