Center to prevent gun violence pursues Alaska case

http://www.necn.com/05/06/11/Center-to-prevent-gun-violence-pursues-c/landing_nation.html?&blockID=3&apID=0b2988a8b31a4f95b2ea00c098ed9ed4

A national organization wants the Alaska Supreme Court to reinstate a lawsuit against the owner of a gun shop where a weapon used to kill a man was obtained.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence filed a brief Thursday with the state's highest court, asking it to reverse a lower court dismissal of the case, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

"Congress did not give reckless gun dealers immunity from the long-established rules that govern everyone else in society," Brady center spokesman Paul Helmke said. "Even if Congress wanted to deprive gun-violence victims of their civil rights to seek justice in the courts, the Constitution does not allow it."

The case involves a gun used to kill Simone Young Kim in 2006 outside a store in Juneau for no apparent reason. The gun was obtained at the Rayco Sales gun shop.

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But I have a hard time seeing how this is the gun store's fault. So they weren't watching the dude the whole time and he managed to slip out of the store without going through the background check.

Wouldn't you have to prove that the store was willfully negligent in letting him slip away undetected?

I mean, gun stores can get pretty busy at times, it can be hard for the worker behind the counter to keep an eye on everyone fondling a new firearm the whole time.

What do you think an appropriate punishment or sanction would be?

But the places I've visited they only let one person handle at a time and don't take their eye off them.

It sounds like negligence at least because from the news story I gather that the killer didn't get ammo from them, only the rifle. So yeah if you're a gun dealer it's not a good idea to divert your attention when someone else is handling a weapon. Ask any other customers to please hold on for a minute until the firearm is in your full control again.

I'd say a fine and suit liability would be appropriate.

with several salepersons involved with customers at the same time.

Or were you trying to say only one customer per salesperson at one time? That would make a certain amount of sense from a security standpoint, but it would only seem to cover items in locke d storage, or behind the counter. Many places have racks of rifles and shotguns in the middle of the sales floor, with customers being hands-on during their shopping. Generally only the high-cost and smaller items are secured during the sales day.

From lawsuits.