If this stands it is going to radically change the way gun stores do business all across the U.S. However, it is important to note that this particular gun shop was known to sell to many many criminals. So, it is a specific kind of gun shop that is being singled out for punishment too. I think the number was at least 400 guns from this one shop were later used in some kind of crime.
Two Officers Were Shot; Wisconsin Store Liable for Gun Sale
| New York Times | - |
MILWAUKEE
- A jury late Tuesday awarded more than $5 million in damages to two
police officers who were severely wounded with a pistol that a local gun
shop sold to a straw buyer in 2009.
MILWAUKEE
— A jury late Tuesday awarded more than $5 million in damages to two
police officers who were severely wounded with a pistol that a local gun
shop sold to a straw buyer in 2009.
Deliberating
only nine hours after a two-week trial in Milwaukee County Circuit
Court, the jury of eight women and four men decided the unusual lawsuit
here in favor of the plaintiffs. Gun-control advocates hoped the verdict
would encourage more victims and lawyers to sue what they say is a
small minority of gun stores that make questionable sales.
The
jury found that the store had been seriously negligent in selling the
gun when there were signs that the ostensible purchaser was fronting for
an 18-year-old who accompanied him to the store.
One
month after the purchase, the 18-year-old, Julius Burton, shot Officer
Bryan Norberg in the face and Officer Graham Kunisch in the head and
body, leaving him with brain damage and a destroyed eye.
Officer
Norberg was emotional and felt vindicated by the verdict, said the
chief lawyer for the officers, Patrick O. Dunphy. Mr. Kunisch, who has
retired, was pleased but barely showed it, Mr. Dunphy said, a result of
his brain injury.
James
Vogts, the chief lawyer for Badger Guns, the former gun store in West
Milwaukee that sold the weapon, said in a statement that the shop owners
would appeal the decision. He said that questions might be raised about
the evidence the jury was permitted to hear and some of the legal
standards it was told to apply.
The
suit was closely watched by gun-control advocates, the firearms
industry and legal scholars because it involved a rare test before a
jury of the responsibility of gun sellers for the criminal use of their
products.
The
case arose in May 2009 when Jacob Collins, 21, bought a Taurus
semiautomatic pistol at Badger Guns on behalf of Mr. Burton, who was too
young to legally purchase a gun. Mr. Burton helped select the weapon.
Weeks
later, Mr. Burton used the gun to shoot the two Milwaukee police
officers. He is serving 80 years for attempted murder, and Mr. Collins
served two years for the illegal purchase.
The
two officers and the City of Milwaukee sued Badger Guns, arguing that
its employees either knew the sale was illegal or were grossly negligent
in allowing it to proceed.
It
was only the second time in the last decade that a civil lawsuit
alleging negligent sales by a gun shop reached a jury. Victims and city
governments tried to sue the gun industry dozens of times in the 1980s
and after, but more than 30 states — and Congress, in 2005 — passed laws
barring most lawsuits against gun makers and sellers for the way that
buyers use their products.
The federal law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act,
provides for exceptions that were cited in the Milwaukee case: Victims
wounded with a weapon can pursue civil damages if the seller of a
firearm knew, or should have known, that the transaction was illegal, or
that it would very likely pose a danger.
In
instructions to jurors, Judge John J. DiMotto said they must decide
whether a “preponderance of evidence” indicated that store employees
“believed or had reasonable cause to believe” that Mr. Collins was not
buying the weapon for his own use.
Lawyers
for the plaintiffs argued that many red flags on the day of the
purchase should have aroused suspicion and led the store clerk to
question Mr. Collins and his hovering friend more aggressively and to
refuse the sale.
Mr.
Burton was seen in a security videotape helping Mr. Collins choose the
Taurus handgun. The two walked outside together briefly when Mr. Collins
did not have enough money in his pocket to cover the $414 transaction.
As
Mr. Collins struggled with paperwork, he checked on a federal form that
he was not buying the gun for himself, then altered the answer when the
clerk noted that it was inconsistent with what he had said on the state
form.
“Badger Guns was supposed to be the public’s gatekeeper,” Mr. Dunphy told the jury in his closing argument Monday.
“This
is your opportunity to send a message to other gun dealers,” he said as
he asked for millions in personal and punitive damages.
But
Mr. Vogts, the defense lawyer, in recounting the sequence of events,
said that it had been far from obvious that Mr. Collins was buying the
gun for Mr. Burton, and that the clerk and the store would never have
intentionally made a criminal sale.
According
to the law, Mr. Vogts told the jury, it is not enough to show that the
clerk “should have been more careful.” Rather, the plaintiffs had to
show that he had “real reason to believe that a crime was being
committed in his presence.”
Badger
Guns’ federal firearms license was revoked in 2011 because of repeated
violations. But the 2009 sale to Mr. Collins was not one of those
violations, and Judge DiMotto did not allow the jury to hear about the
revocation.
Named
in the suit were Adam J. Allan, who owned Badger Guns at the time of
the sale; his father, Walter J. Allan; and Milton E. Beatovic, who had
co-owned a previous gun store in the same location called Badger
Outdoors. But the verdict applies only to Badger Guns as a corporate
entity, Mr. Dunphy said.
The
jury awarded about $1.2 million in damages for past and future medical
expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering to Officer Norberg and about
$3.2 million in damages to Mr. Kunisch, Mr. Dunphy said. It also
awarded them $730,000 in punitive damages.
The
City of Milwaukee will collect a share of the awards in compensation
for medical expenses and disability costs as a result of the shooting,
Mr. Dunphy said.
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