Robert Jourdain had been drinking for hours before he walked into a Walmart store early in the morning of July 5 and bought a box of .38-caliber ammunition, court papers say.
Shortly before 3 a.m., Jourdain, then 20, left the Northampton Crossings shopping center in Lower Nazareth Township and got into the white Mercedes Benz sport utility vehicle where Todd West was waiting with a Smith & Wesson revolver. Within an hour, West allegedly used the bullets to kill three people in a random shooting spree on the streets of Easton and Allentown.
The victims' families have filed a lawsuit in Philadelphia against Walmart that one expert says could succeed despite federal protections for gun and ammo dealers. The families claim Walmart and its employees were negligent in selling the ammunition to Jourdain because they should have known he was too young to buy it legally and was mentally impaired by alcohol.
"The bottom line here is that Walmart sold .38-caliber handgun ammunition to an underage person in the middle of the night, and that ammunition was used to kill several people," said Philadelphia attorney Matt Casey, who filed the suit last week.
Members of my family work in the bar business. If a bartender serves alcohol to a person who is clearly inebriated and then that person is involved in a fatal car accident the bar can be held legally responsible.
Same thing seems reasonable when it comes to selling bullets.
In fact I would like to see similar laws in place not only about alcohol, but also concerning a person who is clearly agitated, making verbal threats, or appearing in any other way unhinged or potentially dangerous.
After all these are bullets they are selling people, not baby aspirin.
Huh, I'm surprised it's in the civilized part of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) and not Pennsabama. But you raise a good point--if an adult has a cold and goes to buy a single box of over-the-counter cold medicine, their driver's license is scanned and a manager has come and side-eye the buyer before the sale can be approved. If an underage drunk wants to buy a bunch of death-weapons, hey, no problem!
ReplyDeleteNothing says family friendly like selling an underaged drunk kid ammunition in the middle of the night.
ReplyDeleteProud to be a non-WalMart shopper since 1999.
Gun nuttery
ReplyDeleteTX Governor to President Obama: Want my gun? “Come and Take It” by aka Nancy French/Bristol Palin
Texas Governor Calls for Huge, Insane Changes to U.S. Constitution
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/01/08/texas_governor_greg_abbott_calls_for_constitutional_convention.html
Is Nancy French trying to destroy what's left of Bristol's reputation?
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/10/09/article-0-189C385400000578-124_634x655.jpg
Bullets are the REAL KILLERs. TAX THE FUCK OUT OF AMMO!!
ReplyDeleteLawsuits against stores and gun makers may end up being the best way to go after the gun industry. It has worked in the past in other industries -- think automobiles, cigarettes, and various unhealthy food products. It didn't do away with them, but we now have much more tightly regulated usage. If stores and manufactures can be held liable for how their guns are used, we'll see a big change in gun regulation and safety.
ReplyDeleteIt's happening everywhere in and near Philly every day, and people just turn a blind eye. I'm not a Wal Mart shopper, and this is just one reason why, along with killing local small business, paying shit wages and crappy if any, benefits, and their merchandise, for the most part, is imported crap that falls apart in the wash.
ReplyDeleteI agree with those who want to tax the hell out of bullets, we did it with cigarettes, so we know it CAN be done. What's worse for your heath, tobacco or bullets?