SACRAMENTO, CALIF. –-(Ammoland.com)- Brady United has filed a pair of wrongful death suits against Ghost Gunner Inc. in California and 12 other gun part manufacturers.
The two suits stem from a shooting that took place 130 miles north of Sacramento in November 2017. The killer lost his gun rights after the courts ordered him to surrender his guns as part of a restraining order. The killer manufactured a homemade rifle and then killed his wife and four others.
Brady United approached the victims’ families and convinced them to file lawsuits against the companies that sold the killer the gun parts used in his killing spree. The anti-gun group accuses 13 defendants of negligence, public nuisance, and violation of business codes. These lawsuits are the first of their kind against gun parts manufacturers in the United States.
Homemade firearms have always been legal in the Country and have a long history with firearms owners and advocates.
In recent years anti-gun advocates have given these guns the name “ghost guns” and insinuate they are a new product. These anti-gun groups point out the makers are not required to include a serial number, and people can make the guns without going through a background check.
Gun rights advocates point to Americans’ long history of making their own firearms when defending the people’s right to bear arms. They also point out that most guns used in crimes are obtained illegally and are not homemade. It is also easier and cheaper to buy a gun illegally than to spend $3000 on a Ghost Gunner CNC machine. They also point out that the courts already stripped the killer’s gun rights, and it was illegal for him to have the rifle he used in the killings.
Brady’s chief Jonathan Lowy believes that sellers of gun parts target those who cannot legally own guns. He ignores the 1000s of hobbyist and firearms enthusiast that build their own firearms every day using these parts.
“There is an ample and thriving gun market in this Country in which law-abiding citizens can get guns thru proper channels. This is an industry that appears aimed at supplying people who can’t legally have guns,” Lowy said Monday.
“Defendants knew when they entered this business that they would foreseeably be supplying criminals, killers, and others whose possession of firearms pose an unacceptably high threat of injury or death to others,” the California court filings say. Their marketing materials “intentionally targeted prohibited persons and other dangerous individuals like Neal. Such tactics and practices were unfair, immoral, unethical, oppressive, and unscrupulous.”
Cody Wilson, the director of Ghost Gunner Inc., thinks that this is an attempt by Brady United to try oppressing people’s rights through the court system. Brady United has a history of filing lawsuits that have little chance of succeeding to make pro-gun companies spend thousands of dollars defending themselves in court. They have used the same tactic multiple times against Armslist.
“It’s a last-minute Hail Mary that misstates the law in California,” Wilson told AmmoLand. “Brady will have more luck colluding with the ATF in 2021.”
In September, California Attorney General and Biden’s pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, Xavier Becerra, filed a lawsuit to demand the ATF to change its policy on 80% lower receiver, even though 80% lower receivers have never been considered firearms in the past. Becerra is trying to get a federal judge to change the definition of the part because they “violate the common definition of a firearm.”
Brady United didn’t respond to the AmmoLand News request for comment.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
The post Brady United Files Lawsuits Against Ghost Gunner Inc. And 12 Others appeared first on AmmoLand.com.
