Gun Stores Shouldn’t Be Held Liable For The Actions Of Customers
Earlier in the week, the Texas Supreme Court struck down lawsuits against Academy Sports and Outdoors. Academy was being sued by survivors and families of those who were killed in the 2017 church shooting in Sutherland Springs.
According to court records, Academy Sports did nothing wrong. They ran a background check and the background check came through clean. So where was the problem? As had been identified earlier, the problem was that information about the shooters discharge never made it to the background check system. As Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote on Thursday,
Academy followed the law when the shooter, Devin Kelley, purchased the rifle in 2016 at a store location in San Antonio. The store followed federal requirements including a background check when Kelley presented an out-of-state license and address. Although Kelley was disqualified from purchasing because of domestic violence charges and a dishonorable discharge from the Air Force, that information had not been reported to the system when the store ran the background check. A separate lawsuit against the Air Force for failing to collect, handle and report that information remains pending in federal court.
Paxton and the Texas Supreme Court got it right here. What exactly is Academy supposed to do? Are they supposed to look into the future and see what each customer is going to do with a firearm?
This ruling by the Texas Supreme Court will make sure for now that gun stores, big and small are protected from these lawsuits that are really meant to shutdown the 2nd Amendment.
If someone uses a Ford or Chevy to runover and kill people, no one sues the dealership (or the automaker) because of how the driver used the vehicle. Same applies here to guns. It's outrageous to hold a gun store liable for how a customer uses the firearm. Even more outrageous when the gun store does their job and it's the government that failed the people.
Those wanting to hold gun manufactures and stores liable are only trying to do away with the 2nd amendment. Kudos to the Texas Supreme Court.