The Daily Beast
On April 13th, 2011, Jitka Vesel was walking to her car when she saw a man she knew running toward her, shooting at her with a handgun.
Vesel threw coffee at her attacker and began to run away, but he pursued her and shot her in the back and in the back of the head, killing her and leaving her corpse so disfigured that local police would not allow Vesel’s family to see her body. Vesel was killed by Demetry Smirnov, a man she had met on the Internet and who had stalked her for years after she allegedly ended their brief romantic relationship.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Smirnov bought the .40-caliber handgun he used to kill Vesel via Armslist, an online firearms marketplace that has tens of thousands of guns listed, with no fees, no auctions—and no enforced background checks for buyers.
On Wednesday, Vesel’s family and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a prominent gun-control advocacy group, filed a lawsuit (PDF) against Armslist for negligence in allowing Smirnov to purchase his weapon. The suit claims Smirnov bought the gun illegally: private sellers are restricted to selling guns in-state only; Smirnov was an immigrant from Russia living in Canada when he bought the gun.
The Brady Campaign, represented by Jonathan Lowy, director of the campaign’s Legal Action Project, says this is the first lawsuit against an online gun site for causing a shooting.
Gun control advocates say potentially taking down Armslist is a crucial piece of the complex task of narrowing what they say is a massive loophole that allows criminals to buy guns from private sellers without being background-checked.
While all licensed dealers are required to subject their sellers to a background check, the same rule does not apply to unlicensed, private dealers, many of whom use sites like Armslist, Gun Listings, and Glock Talk to sell weapons.
Gunsucks want to sell guns to other gunsucks. They don't give a crap about laws about mental illness. It's all about selling guns.
ReplyDeleteI've seen others questioning how the Brady Bunch even have standing to file this lawsuit.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was thinking too. Hopefully, it gets thrown out and they get slapped with fines
DeleteMike - would you say that the above incident is a situation where the woman might have lived if she had a concealed gun on her at the time of the attack? I see that she instead took your advice and attempted to flee from her attacker. Now she is dead. Do you feel responsible if she were to somehow have read your advice on this board and took it to heart as the best way to protect herself if she were ever to be faced with a deadly attacker?
ReplyDeleteGood point. Stand Your Ground makes more sense, now doesn't it.
DeleteNo, of course not.
DeleteI dunno, in my experience a person is less likely to pull the trigger on someone that's pointing a barrel back at them. (Blah blah..something about self-preservation..blah blah)...but let's ban all the legal transfers anyway. That would work. :P
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