The city of Philadelphia cannot sue the gun industry for negligently distributing its products in a way that creates a public nuisance because “gun manufacturers are under no legal duty to protect citizens from the deliberate and unlawful use of their products,” the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Jan. 11, according to The Legal Intelligencer.

The city’s suit was fatally flawed, the court said, because it couldn’t show that the gun manufacturers were the “proximate cause” of the harm suffered by the city. Instead, the court said, the “causal chain” necessary to connect gun makers and gun crimes is “too attenuated.”

The unanimous three-judge panel also rejected negligence and negligent entrustment claims brought by the plaintiffs—the city and five civic organizations.

The ruling upholds a December 2000 decision by US District Judge Berle M. Schiller of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.