The firearm store that sold the gun used in the Oxford High School shooting is asking the Michigan Court of Appeals to dismiss a liability lawsuit filed by the family of a survivor.
In a filing with the court, Acme Shooting Goods argues that it’s too far removed from the crime to be held culpable. The business said store personnel had no way of knowing the 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun would be used in a mass shooting, or that James Crumbley was making the purchase for his teenaged son.
The brief, which uses the killer’s initials instead of his name, argues the claim requires assumptions that are not reflected in the record.
“E.C. stated that he asked his dad to purchase the gun for him; that he gave his dad money for the gun; that he picked out the gun; and that the gun was not kept in a locked container. But E.C. did not testify—and the complaint does not allege—that any of these statements or actions occurred in the store during the sale,” said the brief. It also said the plaintiffs did not identify “red flags” that should have alerted staff the purchase was a “straw sale” being made by the elder Crumbley for his son.
In the lawsuit, the family of Elijah Mueller, who was 14 at the time he was injured in the 2021 shooting, said they can show the dealer knew this was a straw sale by the shooter’s father for his teenaged son.
Matthew Turner, the attorney for the Mueller family, told Michigan Public Radio he can show the gun store skirted the rules when it allowed the shooter and his father to walk out with the gun used in the shootings.
“And we believe that there’s plenty of facts that, if we are fortunate enough to get to discovery, that will demonstrate that they knew that this gun was being purchased for the minor, who’s name I’m not going to use,” he said. “We think that there’s an important societal purpose and benefit to hold gun dealers accountable when they don’t follow the mandates of the law and something bad happens.”
Michigan and federal law make it difficult to sue gun dealers and manufacturers, but Lekha Menon, an attorney with Giffords Law Center, said there are cases being pursued across the country to hold the firearm industry more culpable for mass shootings.
“And I think claims like this against negligent dealers allow individuals to say, well, you had a duty to act a certain way, you violated that duty, and so we can hold you accountable,” she said. “And the more successful claims that we have like that, I think the more similar cases we’ll have popping up in relation to shootings like that.”
