The Wall Street Journal
July 9, 2003
Bushwhacked
Editorial
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105770783122057800,00.html
That's what the folks at Bushmaster Firearms must be feeling, now that a Washington state judge has allowed a lawsuit to proceed against them based on "hypothetical facts." The most hypothetical of the facts impressing Superior Court Judge Frank Cuthbertson is that Bushmaster is responsible for last summer's Maryland sniper murders because the killers used a Bushmaster rifle.
Filed by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence on behalf of nine victim families, the lawsuit also targets the shop where the gun came from, Tacoma-based Bull's Eye Shooter Supply. The allegation is that the "gross negligence" of the gun industry "caused the injuries and deaths that resulted from the sniper shootings."
Allow us to introduce a few real facts into this dispute. What Bushmaster did is sell its perfectly legal product to a licensed dealer (Bull's Eye). That's all. Bushmaster adds that its practice is to check the status of that license before every shipment. If that dealer lacks a license, the company doesn't sell the gun and the issue goes to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The Brady suit asserts that Bull's Eye was so negligent about its inventory that scores of guns have gone missing in recent years, including the one that ended up in the hands of John Allen Muhammad and his teenage sidekick, John Lee Malvo. Because Mr. Muhammad was under a domestic restraining order and Mr. Malvo was a minor, neither could have purchased the gun legally.
The suit dodges this detail by asserting that the dealer's "business practices are so shoddy that, after the shootings, Bull's Eye representatives said they had no record of sale for the Bushmaster assault rifle used in the sniper shootings and claimed to have no idea how the deadly assault weapon 'disappeared' from the store."
But there is a simple reason Bull's Eye could not produce a sales receipt: There wasn't any. As the Seattle Times reports, Mr. Malvo has told authorities he shoplifted the weapon when the two men visited the store.
Bull's Eye apparently does have some problems with its record-keeping, as the BATF recently concluded when it revoked its owner's license. But that fact is an argument for better enforcing of existing gun laws. It's a long, long way from culpability for murders committed with a rifle that was stolen from its shop. And it's a longer way still from implicating the company that simply made the weapon. We know the American legal system has problems, but we hope it still requires facts that are real.
July 9, 2003
Bushwhacked
Editorial
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105770783122057800,00.html
That's what the folks at Bushmaster Firearms must be feeling, now that a Washington state judge has allowed a lawsuit to proceed against them based on "hypothetical facts." The most hypothetical of the facts impressing Superior Court Judge Frank Cuthbertson is that Bushmaster is responsible for last summer's Maryland sniper murders because the killers used a Bushmaster rifle.
Filed by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence on behalf of nine victim families, the lawsuit also targets the shop where the gun came from, Tacoma-based Bull's Eye Shooter Supply. The allegation is that the "gross negligence" of the gun industry "caused the injuries and deaths that resulted from the sniper shootings."
Allow us to introduce a few real facts into this dispute. What Bushmaster did is sell its perfectly legal product to a licensed dealer (Bull's Eye). That's all. Bushmaster adds that its practice is to check the status of that license before every shipment. If that dealer lacks a license, the company doesn't sell the gun and the issue goes to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The Brady suit asserts that Bull's Eye was so negligent about its inventory that scores of guns have gone missing in recent years, including the one that ended up in the hands of John Allen Muhammad and his teenage sidekick, John Lee Malvo. Because Mr. Muhammad was under a domestic restraining order and Mr. Malvo was a minor, neither could have purchased the gun legally.
The suit dodges this detail by asserting that the dealer's "business practices are so shoddy that, after the shootings, Bull's Eye representatives said they had no record of sale for the Bushmaster assault rifle used in the sniper shootings and claimed to have no idea how the deadly assault weapon 'disappeared' from the store."
But there is a simple reason Bull's Eye could not produce a sales receipt: There wasn't any. As the Seattle Times reports, Mr. Malvo has told authorities he shoplifted the weapon when the two men visited the store.
Bull's Eye apparently does have some problems with its record-keeping, as the BATF recently concluded when it revoked its owner's license. But that fact is an argument for better enforcing of existing gun laws. It's a long, long way from culpability for murders committed with a rifle that was stolen from its shop. And it's a longer way still from implicating the company that simply made the weapon. We know the American legal system has problems, but we hope it still requires facts that are real.
Sometimes whoever sets the shop up for the day doesnt always make the best decisions in product placement.
