Over the past several months more news reports have been coming out about "responsible" gun owners who used their guns to stop crime, and what the gun toter thought was crime, being challenged in the media for their actions or charged with gun crimes.
Shooting a young lady through your locked door because they knocked on it, shooting a person in the back as they were leaving after robbing a store, shooting 'warning' shots at people in the front yard while kids play across the street, shooting a person stuck in a window while high on drugs thinking they were a bird, Shooting the ex-boyfriend of the new girlfriend who was coming over to drop off personal property as part of the break up and having an argument with the shooter who goes inside to get the gun, etc. Have ended up getting charged with crimes and in many cases getting convicted.
But today is news that gun sellers are not exempt from liability when they sell a gun, even to someone who passes a background check. A Fulton County jury awarded $6 million to a mother whose 14-year-old son was shot and killed when the “Saturday night special” her daughter had bought for protection was discharged when it dropped on a glass dining room. The jury decided the pawn shot owner who sold Linda Bullard’s daughter the .380-caliber handgun was at fault in the death of Billy Bullard.
Yup, the pawnshop that sold the gun that killed a teenager is partly at fault for the death. This is the first of what may be many more victories: The sellers of ammo to the Colorado theater shooter are facing suits, the gun dealer who sold the gun that killed Officer Bradley Fox in PA (to a person who later gave it to a felon with out a background check), the Pawn shop in KS that sold a gun that was used to kill an 8 year old, the store that sold the rifle that killed four NY firefighters, the pawn shop that sold a pistol to a mentally disturbed girl who killed her father, Indianapolis police officer Dwayne Runnels seeing KS&E sports over the gun that was used to shoot him (and he had to kill the shooter), and such. More and more cases are getting into the courts.
If enough win, the gun industry might stop fighting the Gun Owner Responsibility laws on mandatory insurance.