Friday, August 2, 2013

Judge Dismisses Suit Against Online Gun Marketplace

By Jacob Gershman
Getty Images
Armslist.com isn’t liable for the brutal murder of an Illinois woman shot to death by a man who used the online firearms marketplace to make an illegal gun purchase, a federal judge ruled this week.
The lawsuit was brought by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence on behalf of the brother of Jitka Vesel, a 36-year-old immigrant shot and killed in 2011 by a Russian immigrant living in Canada. Gun-control advocates said the legal challenge was the first of its kind.
U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle of Illinois dismissed the wrongful death claim this week, concluding that Armslist can’t be held responsible for the criminal conduct of its users.
“The Court finds that Defendant owes no duty to the general public to operate its website to control private individual users’ sale of handguns,” the judge wrote.
Attorneys for Armslist didn’t respond to a request for comment.
One of its users was Demetry Smirnov, who is serving a life sentence for stalking and murdering Ms. Vesel, whom he met online years earlier.
Mr. Smirnov admitted to purchasing a .40-caliber handgun in Seattle from a private seller who posted an ad for the weapon on Armslist. Mr. Smirnov paid an extra $200 because it was an illegal purchase, and then shot Ms. Vesel about a dozen times in the parking lot of a Chicago-area museum, according to federal prosecutors. The seller received a one-year sentence.
The Brady Center argued that Armslist endangered public lives by designing a website that “encouraged” people to buy illegal guns. Judge Norgle called the argument “speculative,” saying Armslist “has no involvement in the sales transaction of the products, including firearms, merely advertised on the website.”
The judge also noted that people who visit Armslist must first click through a terms-of-use disclaimer and agree to comply with state and federal gun laws.
The Brady Center said the disclaimer was hardly an obstacle and that the site ought to at least require buyers and sellers to enter verifiable identification, such as a driver’s license number.
The Brady Center is weighing an appeal. “We continue to believe that those who choose to facilitate the supply of guns to dangerous people owe society a duty to use reasonable care,” Jonathan Lowy, a Brady Center lawyer, told Law Blog.

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