In 2011, a Canadian national named Demetry Smirnov illegally purchased a handgun that had been advertised on Armslist. He then used that handgun to kill Jitka Vesel. With the support of the Brady Center, Vesel’s next of kin decided to sue Armslist for wrongful death.
This one had me a bit concerned. Although the PLCAA prohibits nuisance liability lawsuits against manufacturers of firearms, there isn’t any explicit protection for sellers or event organizers. Had this been a win for plaintiffs, it could have set a destructive precedent, and it would have started a tidal wave of litigation.
Armslist filed a Motion to Dismiss in the Northern District Court of Illinois, and Judge Norgle has granted it [pdf].
[T]he Court finds that the criminal conduct of third-parties who misuse Defendant’s website to illegally sell and buy firearms is not a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the website’s design. (…) The Court finds that Defendant owes no duty to the general public to operate its website to control private users’ sale of handguns.
Continued...