We Lost Our Daughter to a Mass Shooter and Now Owe $203,000 to His Ammo Dealer

huffingtonpost.com ^ | 9/25/2015 | Lonnie and Sandy Phillips

[rktman]

We have been getting a lot of questions about our lawsuit against Lucky Gunner, the online company that sold ammunition to the man who murdered our daughter Jessica along with 11 others in an Aurora, Colorado, theater. Especially after the Rachel Maddow Show covered us twice, people ask us about the judge's order that we pay Lucky Gunner's attorneys' fees, since our lawsuit was unsuccessful.

We brought our lawsuit because we thought it was outrageous that companies could sell a dangerous man an arsenal without getting any information about him, and without making any effort to see if he was a dangerous killer -- which he was. When the killer had left a voicemail with a shooting range, the range operator knew that he was bad news and shouldn't be given access to guns. But these companies set up their business so people just like this killer can arm themselves at the click of a mouse. We wanted to change that. And we still do.

[rktman]

Awe. Maybe you should sue the assclowns that convinced you to bring the law suit in the first place. Are they gonna pony up the money you've been ordered to fess up? Probably not. Sorry for your loss but you are being used by people that get a tingle up their leg when things like this happen so they car further the goal of subverting the constitution.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Helps restore my faith in the U.S. judicial system.

[Parley Baer]

Maybe they should sit back and look at the big picture. Instead they got mixed up with the anti-gun crowd with big promises and got the short end of the stick.

[left that other site]

Flatware Manufacturers should be sue for selling the knives that people use to kill people, The forks that lift food to the lips of the obese, and the spoons that feed sugar-laden jar food to babies.

[null and void]

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

[rktman]

Not according to some of the comments after the article. These are people that join the momunists and will NEVER be convinced that they are wrong. EVER.

[dennisw]

The Phillipses, vowing not to miss a moment of the trial, sold 75 percent of their belongings, rented out their San Antonio home and pulled a just-purchased camper to Denver in time for opening statements in late April.

“It’s like a refuge to us,” Lonnie, 71, said of the one-bedroom camper.

The couple has lived in the tight quarters with their two Maltese-mix dogs for nearly three months. Just inside the front door rests a photo of Jessica Ghawi, their 24-year-old daughter who was among the 12 people slain when the shooter opened fire in the theater on July 20, 2012 in nearby Aurora.

Jurors in the case are set to hear closing arguments Tuesday after seeing more than 250 witnesses testify and 1,500 photographs submitted into evidence.

Assistance funds provided to victims and their families allowed the Phillipses to stay in a hotel for a couple of weeks, but the remainder of their nights have been in the trailer parked on a local Good Samaritan’s property about four miles from the courthouse.

View gallery.

Sandy and Lonnie Phillips' daughter, 24-year-old Jessica Ghawi, was slain in the July 20, 2012 Colorado movie theater …

[smokingfrog]

karma

[TroutStalker]

You have been used by the gun grabbers. Don’t feel too bad, they use all victims of gun violence to further their agenda.

[Spok]

“outrageous that companies could sell a dangerous man an arsenal without getting any information about him”

Like selling a car to someone without checking his driving record, drinking habits and anger management issues? Is that a reasonable burden? Really?

[RandallFlagg]

“But these companies set up their business so people just like this killer can arm themselves at the click of a mouse.”

Keep it up, morons.
I hope they get sued for slander.

[DH]

To the stupid idiot who tried to sue the ammo dealer: What a fool! I guess you will sue the ice cream man for selling you too many cones and made you sick.

Fool....understand.....there is no law requiring the seller of the ammo to ensure that the buyer has been certified as a “good guy” before he sells the ammo.

Get lost! It’s stupid people like you that are responsible for all of the laws and regulations that regulate COMMON SENSE.

Furthermore, you thought that you could make a pile of money by bringing suit to the ammo dealer didn’t you and now that it has backfired, you are screaming “FOUL!”

[trisham]

These people are not living in the real world. They’re delusional.

[Heart of Georgia]

I have sympathy for them in the death of their child, but the outcome of the lawsuit is as it should be.

[dennisw]

They don’t want to pay but they have a house and can pay after they lose this house in a lawsuit to recover attorney’s fees.

Or The James Brady Foundation can pay. They have oodles of money and their lawyers brought the case pro-bono. They egged on this couple. Have each party pay half the $200,000

[exDemMom]

The actions of a mass shooter are no more the fault of the manufacturer or seller of ammunition than a car manufacturer is responsible if someone decides to ram his car into a crowd, or a match manufacturer if someone decides to block people in a building and light it on fire.

I think that background checks are marginally effective. While they might keep people who have committed gun crimes from legally obtaining guns, they do nothing to keep the psychotic mentally ill from getting guns. In many cases, these people are giving off signals that they are about to become violent (or commit some other horrific crime, like Edward Snowden or Bradley Manning did), but, thanks to various laws, it is nearly impossible to stop them. The mentally ill cannot be kept confined, because the ACLU successfully sued against the practice as “unlawful imprisonment.” And HIPAA laws prevent mental health information from being included in background checks.

Instead of suing the shop that sold the ammo, how about activating against the laws that make stopping a violently mentally ill person almost impossible to do before the fact?

[GreyFriar]

they are the winners in the new concept of “loser pays” laws regarding the bringing of lawsuits. If the plaintiff wins, they get paid by the defendant, but if they loose, then they have to pay the defendants costs against the lawsuit. This law is used in Great Britain and makes sense to me.

Its goal is to reduce frivolous lawsuits and the ‘get rich quick’ type of ambulance chasing lawyers.

[M Kehoe]

I'm sorry about their loss.

My guess about the Phillips is that grief, greed and stupidity caused their current situation.

5.56mm

[sevlex]

Tough fecal matter. You brought a frivolous lawsuit and now have to pay the consequence. For what’s worth, you should sue the Brady Center and that shyster lawyer for conning you into that losing proposition.

[NonValueAdded]

Used as pawns in their moment of grief, where are their handlers now?