U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Armslist has won yet another case against the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
The Brady Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence teamed up with Boston police officer Kurt Stokinger, who was shot in the line of duty, to sue the online gun marketplace. The websites let dealers and individuals sell their firearms and firearm accessories online. It is a “Craigslist” for guns.
In 2016, Stokinger executed a traffic stop on Grant Headley. The suspect of the stop pulled a .40 caliber Glock handgun and fired on the officer. Headly fired five shots at Stokinger, hitting the officer in the leg. The gun jammed, allowing other officers to take Headly into police custody.
Headley was on a five-year probation for gun and drug charges during the traffic stop. He acquired the gun from Sarah Johnson. She purchased multiple guns from Armslist and resold the firearms to local gang members. Stokinger and the Brady Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence also named Headly and Johnson in the lawsuit.
Johnson purchased the Glock Pistol in New Hampshire for $460. The lawsuit claims Johnson bought the gun from a private seller in a Mcdonald’s restaurant parking lot. The suit alleges that Armslist didn’t have enough safeguards to prevent the sale of firearms to prohibited people. Johnson purchased between 30 to 63 guns through the website. The suit claims the site was guilty of negligence because it allows people to buy firearms from private sellers.
Armslist claimed that the CDA 230 Safe Harbor protected the site. CDA 230 says that “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”
The section protects sites like Facebook, Google, Yelp, Craigslist, and others from legal liability from user-generated content. This protection extends to items sold through these platforms. Groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) see the CDA 230 Safe Harbor protection as a critical component to have a free and open Internet.
If the Brady Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence were successful in their lawsuit against Armslist, it would have a chilling effect on Internet commerce. It would open up Amazon, Facebook, Craiglist, eBay, Shopify, and Google to multiple lawsuits. Any site that allows third-party sellers could be at risk of going bankrupt from having to settle these cases. It would shut down almost all internet commerce sites.
This suit isn’t the first time Brady Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has sued Armslist. The anti-gun group filed another lawsuit against Armslist in the Federal Court in the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Brady’s lawsuit here is almost identical to their failed Massachusetts case. Most legal experts agree that this case will fail as well.
Gun rights advocates believe that the real goal of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is to bankrupt the gun website through frivolous lawsuits. The anti-gun organization is one of the most well-funded gun control groups in the country. The Brady Campaign has a massive influence on politicians. It has used its power to pass things like background checks using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
Jon Gibbons of Armslist see this as more than a case just about his website. He believes other sites would feel the ramifications if they lost in court.
“We defended the foundation of the Internet against another assault, aimed at destroying free speech on the Internet,” Jon Gibbon, of Armslist, said. “We fought against Brady’s bullying tactics. For almost 50 years, Brady has tried to chill constitutionally protected rights by attempting to bankrupt prominent parties who operate within constitutionally protected industries that Brady does not approve of. Brady obviously does not care if their anti-constitutional cause results in the destruction of the Internet. ”
Armslist has set up a legal defense fund to help fight back against the attacks by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
The Brady Campaign refused AmmoLand’s request for comment.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.
I have purchased and sold/traded quite a few items from people listing on Armslist over the years. I have never bought anything from Armslist. They don’t sell anything except advertising. Typical crock of fecal matter. You can sue anybody over anything. Lawyers and liberals have ruined this country.
Armslist should counter sue Brady Campaign for harassment and frivolous lawsuit.
Brady is too rich and Arms List would go bankrupt fighting this. This is Brady’s plan, to bankrupt them in court. They have all kinds of leftist dollars
Since Brady lost, the court should order the losing party to cover costs for the prevaiing party. Shoould be a matter of course.
That is the one thing that Great Britain does better than us. If you sue and lose, not only do you pay the defendant’s costs, but you pay them the amount that you sued them for. When you have to put that much skin in the game, it drastically reduces the number of frivolous lawsuits.
FIGHT BACK. ALWAYS.
Everybody and his uncle know “straw purchasing” is a felony punishable by federal law. Too, there are NO online purchases of firearms direct to customers. Even at gun shows, purchasers are vetted through NICS. But gun haters will never quit with their lies.
Why the apostrophe s (‘s) in the title? This is fourth grade grammar. If you want to have credibility, you have to get the basics correct.
True enough, but most folks read for content and not style, and walk right past these things. Probably not two in an hundred even noticed those faux pas.
Appears to be an editing error where the rest of the headline was cut off (probably had the word “Lawsuit” or similar at the end of the original. They probably relied on a spell checker to proof read for them.
What I want to know is this; was Sara Johnson prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law? Of the twenty thousand plus firearms laws on the books, this is one of them. The left will complain and whine about individual sales and imaginary loopholes, but the left wing prosecutors won’t use the laws on the books to curtail the REAL illegal activity. Most straw purchasers walk, having never been charged. Here is a poster girl for what you’re not supposed to do. Is she still free?
Definitely. If she has purchased that many guns through this list, and ONE ended up in the hands of a person of disability through her carelessness (or wilful thumbing her schnozz at the laws and decency) she SHOULD have been prosecuted for at least this sale to a prohibited person. WHERE are BATF on this one? Or for that matter Brady? (or do Brady not care awhit that one more convicted felon got his weapon ilegally, in vioilation of the laws Brady has helped foist upon the rest of us?)
I’d like to know what happened to Armslist? They got rid of Search Alerts and Power Search rendering the site useless. Did they do this as a cave to a suit?
“She purchased multiple guns from Armslist and resold the firearms to local gang members.” Something is missing here. When you buy a hand gun on line it is delivered to an FFL for transfer. That transfer is a physical transfer. Where is the FFL in this picture?
Face To Face in the same State. But in Massachusetts:
“The seller must verify the buyer’s Firearm Identification Card with the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services. ”
Unless, you know, illegal sale.
Only if it is purchased on line. These were evidently purchased face-to-face in the buyer’s state. Not sure about Assachusetts laws, but they probably require some kind of check even for a personal sale in state.
JDL, you forgot the “M” in …
Oooh, I see, I see. Very clever.
CDA 230 must go. Facebook, Google, You Tube and others abuse this rule to censor conservative and 2A voices. It allows these companies the protection from libel and other law suits of a neutral platform (think phone provider) while they are clearly acting like a publisher and edit or remove content. (edit for clarity)
no, CDA 230 MUST STAY. That law does NOT give Facebook Twits, etc, free pass to regulate or control content on their sites. Which they DO. Now if Armslist were banning listings for some category of guns legal to own, because they’ve got a beef with that manufacturer, it would be another story. Facebook Google, utube, twitter instagram, etc, all monitor content and remove that which they do not like based on whatever reason. Yet guys lie Jack Phillips “should” be forced to create artistic content with which they strongly disagree…. but with these lists, the host site does not… Read more »