The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is filing a lawsuit Tuesday against an online ammunition retailer on behalf of the survivors of a victim of the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, which killed 12 and wounded nearly 60 others.
The lawsuit will name Lucky Gunner, at BulkAmmo.com, as well as other online retailers, as defendants that allegedly sold bulk ammunition to James Holmes, the accused shooter in the incident.
“The lawsuit alleges that the websites negligently supplied Holmes with the arsenal he used to kill 12 people and wound at least 58 others by failing to use any screening mechanism to determine his identity or intent for the products,” the Brady Center said in a media release, according to Denver’s KDVR Fox31 News.
“It’s certainly a novel theory, and the odds of prevailing are not great,” legal expert Dan Recht told the station. “There’s never been a negligence lawsuit like this, and so the court is going to have to decide whether it can even go to a jury or whether the court will grant a motion to dismiss, saying, ‘this is not a cause of action that the court’s ever going to hear.’”
According to Fox31:
The lawsuit will be filed on behalf of Sandy and Lonnie Phillips, whose daughter Jessica Ghawi was killed in the massacre. The official announcement was set to be made Tuesday in Denver.
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Earlier this month, the Brady Center launched a national campaign against what they call “Bad Apple” gun dealers. The Center argues that just five percent of gun dealers account for nearly all of the guns used in crimes.
The lawsuit seems to be an act of desperation by the Brady Campaign, and would appear akin to suing a service station owner for selling gasoline to a motorist who later used his car to purposely mow down a group of demonstrators.
