A pawn shop that sold a gun to a mentally ill Missouri woman who used it to fatally shoot her father will settle in a wrongful death case, according to the attorney for the woman’s mother.
Washington, D.C.-based Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence lawyer Jonathan Lowy told The Associated Press on Nov. 21 that the settlement is expected to be the largest against gun dealers since a 2005 federal law was enacted that bars some state-level actions against gun dealers if buyers use the weapons to harm others.
“There are gun dealers who before this case might choose a few dollars profit to engage in irresponsible sales,” said Lowy, who is representing the woman’s mother. “After this settlement, they’re not going to do that.”
An attorney for the pawn shop did not immediately return phone or email messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.
In the Missouri case, Wellington resident Janet Delana said her daughter, Colby Sue Weathers, in May 2012 bought a gun from Odessa Gun & Pawn and tried to kill herself.
Delana said she asked the store in June not to sell a gun to Weathers, who is schizophrenic. Weathers bought a gun from the store two days later and within hours used it to fatally shoot her father and attempt suicide again.
The state committed Weathers to a mental institution, and Delana filed a wrongful death suit against the gun dealer.
Lawyers for Odessa Gun & Pawn unsuccessfully tried to block the wrongful death case, arguing to the Missouri Supreme Court that the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act was intended to prevent such lawsuits and potential chilling effects on commerce.
Judges in April upheld the constitutionality of that law but said certain negligence lawsuits can be brought under state law against gun sellers. The judges cited an exemption in the federal law, which allows for lawsuits if the seller knows, or reasonably should know, that the buyer likely will “use the product in a manner involving unreasonable risk of physical injury to the person or others,” and then does that.
Related:
Topics Missouri Gun Liability
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