Mother sues Missouri shop for selling gun later used in murder

[SecularMotion]

(Reuters) - A Missouri gun shop is facing a wrongful death lawsuit after selling a handgun to a woman who is charged with using it to murder her father.

The Washington-based Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence brought the suit on behalf of Janet Delana, who said she warned the gun store not to sell any guns to her daughter, Colby Sue Weathers, because of a long history of mental illness.

The suit comes at a time of growing concern about the mental state of people who perpetrate gun violence. Gunmen in shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and at a movie theater outside of Denver, for example, were described later as having psychological issues.

More than a dozen wrongful death lawsuits are pending against gun dealers, some involving sales to customers who were not mentally stable, said Jonathan Lowy, a Brady Center lawyer who helped file the Missouri lawsuit.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/14/us-usa-missouri-gun-idUSBREA2D02120140314

[NYC_SKP]

1. Most Second Amendment supporters would like to see safeguards against selling guns to disturbed folk

But obviously it has to be done in legitimate ways.

If this part of the story is true:

Weathers developed a high level of paranoia in 2006, was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2011, and hospitalized on several occasions for suicidal tendencies, the lawsuit said.

The Social Security Administration determined she was "severely mentally ill," the lawsuit states.

...then indeed she should never have been sold any firearm or ammo.

However, one person coming into a store saying that another person is mentally disturbed is not enough under any sense of fairness to deprive another of their constitutional rights. If it were, people would be doing it left and right for any number of reasons.

Instead, and this is the tricky part, there needs to be a way to screen out such people through a background check without violating medical information privacy.

THAT is the big challenge, IMO, and one that I think everyone here would like to solve.

...

[sarisataka]

2. Those are the key questions

if her MH data was entered so should have been in a BG check
or
the mother showed medical documentation that her daughter was a danger

then I would unequivocally support a wrongful death suit. But if it was a matter of "don't sell to her, she's crazy" there is no case. Hearsay is not sufficient to deny a person their rights.