Sutherland Springs Massacre Update: Lawsuit Filed by Victims’ Surviving Family

Gun control laws don’t work. The NRA is blocking further restrictions.

Enter tort law. This is a miscellaneous category of lawsuits under civil law. That means that defendants do not face criminal sanctions, but might be ordered to pay damages.

You know about these types of tort actions already. Example: Negligence. Case in point: A surgeon negligently fails to remove sponges in a patient causing pain and suffering, and damages.

Joann Ward and her daughters Emily and Brooke were shot and killed by Devin Kelley.

Their survivors are suing Academy Sports & Outdoors, the large sports equipment store in San Antonio that sold Kelly the Ruger AR-556 used to kill 26 people at Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church on Nov. 5.

The lawsuit filed last week in a state district court in San Antonio seeks at least $25 million, accusing the store being negligent in allowing the sale of the Ruger AR-556 used to kill 26 people at Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church on Nov. 5.

The lawsuit claims that when Kelley purchased the weapon in a San Antonio store, he entered an address in Colorado Springs on the federal Firearms Transaction Record form that needs to be completed before a firearm can be sold.

He obtained the weapon in Texas but it should have been sent to his Colorado residence, where he had been stationed with the U.S. Air Force, the lawsuit said.

Houston Attorney Jason Webster said, “The Ruger should have never been placed in Kelley’s hands in Texas.”

The legal significance? Tort law is sometimes a valuable “safety valve” in a legal system where lawmakers refuse to pass statutes.

Broadly speaking, if this lawsuit is successful it may discourage retailers from selling assault style (and other) weapons.

This process is slow, hit-and-miss, and patchwork in quality.

But it can achieve limited successes.

Example? Tort litigation in the 1990s led to a massive settlement of cigarette smoking claims. The settlement didn’t end cigarettes, but then again, few people are suggesting a ban on guns— just limits on assault weapons and accessories and further controls on people who are unfit to have guns.