Sorry guys, couldn't resist needling you as this seems like something that'd happen over here.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/archives/2001/sep/12/091202046.html?kmart


Jury: Kmart Negligent in Gun Sale
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A federal court jury decided Wednesday that Kmart was negligent when its employees sold a shotgun to a 19-year-old mentally ill man who committed suicide.

The jury set damages of $1.5 million and will return Thursday morning to decide punitive damages. Eslinger's parents, Sandra and Phil Eslinger, had sought $3 million in damages.

Closing arguments in the wrongful death suit focused on Kmart's compliance with federal gun laws and whether the company's actions caused the suicide of Ryan Eslinger.

The parents alleged Kmart violated federal gun laws when a 17-year-old sales clerk - a high school acquaintance of Eslinger's - sold him the shotgun without seeking proper identification. Eslinger used his passport for the purchase, but that document did not show his address, a requirement for a gun sale.

Medication Eslinger was taking would have made him appear drunk, which would have been another reason not to sell the gun to him, the Eslingers' attorney, James McKenna, said.

Eslinger was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic in 1995 and declared legally mentally defective. He was involuntary committed in 1996 after cutting his throat in a suicide attempt. When he was released, he started taking the powerful anti-psychotic medication Clozaril.

But on the gun application form, he denied he had ever been hospitalized for mental illness or adjudicated mentally defective. That, and other actions he took in the two days it took him to buy the gun and bring it home showed he planned his death, said Kmart attorney Rodney Parker.

"Ryan Eslinger came into this store and lied," Parker said. "There's no witness who saw him in the store who said he appeared unstable."

A day after he bought the weapon in May 1996, Sandra Eslinger went out of town. That night, Ryan killed himself.

"She didn't see this (suicide) coming, either," Parker said. "Nobody saw it coming."

Well, it seems that no one in America is responsible for their own actions anymore. I'm going to rip the roof off of my house and then sue the builder for selling it to me.

So if they sold him rope and he hung himself.... they'd still be liable?

What if they sold him a cordless drill and he bored into his own head?

This crap needs to stop

It really, really does.

My God!!

It's one thing to go after a manufacturer for a faulty product. But if your such a dumb ass to use a product other than as dircted and injure yourself, and then try to get monitary gain, when it is your fault not the manufacturer's, Jeez!!  

"I didn't know it was loaded. It must be someone else's fault, I'm smarter than that."

May my AR-15 be my savior from all the stupidites. [sniper]

Be Well All, and stay out of Utah.

hmmm, idea...I am going to sue Kmart because they sold me the ten boxes of Twinkies...and I gained 10 pounds causing me to have heart related problems...hmmmm, if this case above flew...I think mine would...this is just f-ed up.

medcop[heavy]

Man! there goes my dreams ...

Here I thought Utah would the place to be at .. You can have many Wifes!  Then I was not sure if this was good .. I was trying  to weigh the advantages verses disadvantages about this. ..

This just tipped the scales as to disadvantage...

Oh .. Well .. Gotta lean towards Texas once again to lean towards land of god .. OR AZ is it![:D]

I think moms and dads should be grateful that the "Fruit of Their Looms" didn't do them first...

NJOGI think about it---PMS times 4 or 5--- I don't think so!

Someone from PRK calling the state of Utah liberal!  OK, what is your evidence, let us see, a news article about a Federal trial (not state) for an illegal gun sale.

How about you take a trip to Utah and see how liberal a state it is.

Let see, can some in the PRK go and by a new AR15, no, can they in Utah, yes, OK you are right Utah does have liberal gun laws.

Please consult my sources:

http://www.nraila.org/media/misc/ca.htm

http://www.nraila.org/GunLaws.asp?FormMode=Detail&R=UT

This has nothing to do with Utah and everything to do with greed.  You would be so lucky to leave PRK and move to Utah, of course you may find Utah's gun  laws too liberal for your own good.  Therefore I suspect you will stay in the PRK.

Did you actually read my lead in?  Maybe you should pull that stick out of your ass?
And then you try to insult me by intimating that I'm too conservative for Utah?  Ouch!  Don't know if I can get up after that.

More importantly, why is a seventeen year old selling firearms?

Zaz

Geez Hallmark, lighten up eh? We here in the PRK take every opportunity to take the heat off us, example: that biatch Lee. Did David "not" relate that in his opening line?

Sit back, relax and watch a Disney movie or something.

Yer Pal,
Barracuda

Utah? liberal? Compared to what- Massachusetts?

Maybe that's why Teddy Kopechne and Orrin Hatch get along so well.... :^)

Yeah, but the verdict has to survive post-trial proceedings, and an appeal!

Did KMArt know that its clerk knew the kid to be a mental case of sorts? That should be at least enough to throw out any [u]punitive[/u] damages the limp-wristed jury might award!

Eric The(That'sHope!)Hun[>]:)]

shouldn't his hospitalization for mental illness been picked up by NICS and caused him to be denied?
K-Mart is at fault for selling a gun without proper ID, if the story of the family is true
it's not k-mart's fault he shot himself