Ryan Mears Blames Gun Laws for Violence While Declining to Charge Man Who Pulled Gun on Shortridge High-School Student

Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears has repeatedly pointed to Indiana’s permitless carry law as a driver of gun violence in Indianapolis. Yet when IMPD documented a case in which a 33-year-old man allegedly pulled a firearm on a Shortridge High School student, Mears’ office declined to file charges.

On September 29, IMPD recorded CAD number IP2600079498 as an intimidation incident involving Officer E. Snowden. Police said the 33-year-old Marion County resident, who lives at the Damien Center, pointed a gun at a minor student from Shortridge High School. Under Indiana law, pointing a firearm at another person is a Level 6 felony. Intimidation with a deadly weapon is a Level 5 felony. The victim was a student; the suspect was an adult. Mears’ office chose not to prosecute.

This is not a technicality. Prosecutors have charging discretion, but declining to pursue a reported armed threat against a high-school student sends a clear signal about priorities. The office has offered no public explanation of why the evidence was insufficient or why the case did not warrant filing. Parents and students at Shortridge are left with the outcome: a reported gun pointed at a teenager did not result in a charge.

The contrast with Mears’ public statements is sharp. In August 2022, shortly after Indiana’s permitless carry law took effect on July 1, Mears’ office issued a statement following a weekend of shootings. It said in part: “We forewarned the consequences that would come from having more guns on our streets as a result of the permitless carry legislation, and we are witnessing the ramifications of that action on a far-too-frequent basis.”

When WTHR’s 13 Investigates asked for evidence linking the violence to the new law, Mears said the concern was that “everybody’s armed” and that this gave people “unfounded confidence” during disputes. He acknowledged it had not yet been 60 days since the law took effect and that empirical data would take longer to develop. IMPD and the Indiana State Police both said at the time they did not have data showing the law’s impact on violence. IMPD data available then indicated homicides and non-fatal shootings were down in 2022 compared with the prior year, including in July and August after the law was in force.

Mears has continued to emphasize gun laws and the number of firearms in circulation as primary factors in youth and community violence. Critics have long argued that the more immediate variable is enforcement of existing laws against people who use guns illegally. Pointing a firearm at a student is already a felony under the statutes on the books. Declining to charge it does not require new legislation; it requires a decision to file.

The pattern is consistent with other choices Mears’ office has made public: generally declining to prosecute low-level marijuana possession and stating it would not charge certain abortion-related cases. Those are policy judgments. An armed intimidation of a minor is a different category of conduct. Residence at a social-service facility such as the Damien Center does not create a statutory exemption from felony intimidation or pointing a firearm. If the evidence was insufficient, the office can say so. Silence after a documented police report leaves the impression that some armed offenses against students are treated as lower priority.

It is not Constitutional Carry that produces lawlessness and violence in Marion County. It is a prosecutor who repeatedly declines to charge people who use guns illegally—including, in this case, a reported instance of a grown man pulling a firearm on a high-school student. The statutes already exist. What is missing is the decision to enforce them.

Marion County voters will decide in November whether this approach to armed threats continues. The WTHR reporting from 2022 showed Mears attributing violence to a law for which he had no supporting data at the time. The September 29 case shows his office declining to prosecute a specific reported instance of a gun being pulled on a high-school student. Law that is not enforced against those who brandish firearms is not a deterrent. It is a suggestion. Students walking to class at Shortridge do not have the option of treating it as optional.