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Gun maker, sellers sued over Pizza Hut
By Inger Sandal
Arizona Daily Star
The families of two of the three employees shot to death at an East Side Pizza Hut have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the manufacturer of the gun used to kill them and three parties involved in its various sales as it made its way to the two teens convicted in the killings.
"The purpose of this lawsuit is to say that the unfettered manufacture, distribution and sale of handguns is wrong, and that the companies and people that promote it have to be held accountable," said attorney J. Patrick Butler.
"You can't pass a law that says it's wrong for minors to have handguns, then look the other way at gun shows and other venues where such sales take place," he said.
The lawsuit alleges that the gun shows run by McMann's Roadrunner at the Tucson Convention Center, also named in the suit, are "a danger and a hazard to the community."
Butler filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Pima County Superior Court on behalf of Daniel and Barbara Bloxham, and Dianna Spalding. Police say it appeared their children, James Bloxham and waitress Melissa Moniz, put up no resistance before they were shot along with manager Robert Curry on Jan. 17, 1999.
Kajornsak "Tom" Prasertphong, 21, and Christopher Bo Huerstel, 19, were convicted in the killings and await sentencing.
Prasertphong told police where to find the gun - hidden in his truck - after he confessed to the crimes.
"What we hope to see is those that are involved in the manufacture and distribution of handguns will be more vigilant to prevent handguns from getting into the wrong hands so that these tragedies don't happen," Butler said.
They seek unspecified damages from Glock Inc. alleging the gun maker was more concerned with selling a large number of guns than with ensuring the "lawfulness, reasonableness or carefulness of the sales."
The lawsuit also names Centerfire Inc., the Tucson gun store that acquired the gun from a Denver gun shop in March 1998, and Stanley Woznicki, the man who bought it the next week and later resold it.
"We know that Woznicki bought the gun from Centerfire, and that he sold it at a McMann gun show. We believe that Prasertphong bought the gun at a McMann gun show," Butler said.
The owners of McMann's Roadrunner Inc., Pat and Joan McMann, could not be reached for comment. The owner of Centerfire was unavailable for comment yesterday, and Woznicki could not be found for comment.
The suit alleges that McMann's Roadrunner "knew or should have known that the gun shows it operated at the Tucson Convention Center were a danger and hazard to the community."
It alleges the company failed to screen exhibitors, establish and enforce safe sales restrictions and ensure compliance with state and federal law.
Paul Jannuzzo, a Glock vice president and general counsel, said he was unaware of the Tucson lawsuit but said it sounded groundless.
"I really don't think a straight-thinking judge is going to hold someone legally responsible for selling a legal product in a proper manner,"Jannuzzo said, likening the idea to suing a car manufacturer after a drunken-driving wreck.
He said it was the second such lawsuit recently filed against Glock. The company is also defending itself in litigation filed by the victims of an avowed racist who wounded three children and two adults at a Jewish community center in Los Angeles on Aug. 10, 1999, and killed a postal worker before he was arrested.
"We sold that gun to a police department who traded it in to a gun store who sold it to Mr. (Buford O.) Furrow," said Jannuzzo, who said he hopes Glock will be dismissed from both complaints. However, advocates with the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence in Washington, D.C., say courts are increasingly interested in holding gun sellers accountable.
"Civil suits like this are a very important supplement to our laws because they give gun sellers a very important financial incentive to act responsibly," said Dennis Henigan, who directs the center's legal action project.
Sigberto F. Celaya, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' resident agent in charge in Tucson, said investigators have yet to determine "who put the gun in Prasertphong's hands" and have found no criminal violations surrounding the gun. Woznicki was the last retail purchaser of the gun, Celaya said.
Individuals can legally sell firearms, but they cannot make a business of it without a federal license, Celaya said. "He's within the law to sell his own collection of firearms."
The lawsuit contends Centerfire sold more than 20 handguns to Woznicki in the year before he bought the Glock Model M-22 later used in the Pizza Hut killings. It contends that Woznicki "was not acquiring firearms for his own use, but rather was operating as an unlicensed firearms dealer by regularly engaging in the purchase and sale of firearms."
The Bloxhams and Spalding also have pending lawsuits against the two convicted gunmen and against Pizza Hut Inc. for allegedly failing to properly advise the franchisee on security.
An associate of Prasertphong's said Prasertphong told him the day he bought the gun that he had purchased it at the TCC gun show, a county investigator has said.
"I really don't think a straight-thinking judge is going to hold someone legally responsible for selling a legal product in a proper man-ner,"Jannuzzo said, likening the idea to suing a car manufacturer after a drunken-driving wreck.
BINGO!
Find a liberal judge and score big.
It sounds like Glock is about as responsible for those deaths as Pizza Hut is.
Uh-oh, I may have just given some bottom-feeding lawyer an idea!
Since when are 21 and 19 year olds minors?
Another bogus "whizzing into the wind" lawsuit.
Tort reform is way, WAAAY overdue in this country.
They should sue the mozzarella company while there at it. If Pizza Hut didn't have mozzarella cheese, nobody would have been there to be killed.
"I really don't think a straight-thinking judge is going to hold someone legally responsible for selling a legal product in a proper manner,"Jannuzzo said, likening the idea to suing a car manufacturer after a drunken-driving wreck.
Too bad they did that. Wasn't GM successfully sued for $4.3 billion after a drunk driver plowed into a 12 year old car at 75 MPH?
Surprised they aren't suing the decendents of the founding fathers for repriations, since they wrote the 2nd amendment.
I need to let Pizza Hut know that I love Glocks moreso than their pizza, hence no more Pizza Hut for me or my friends and family.
The purpose of this lawsuit is to say that the unfettered manufacture, distribution and sale of handguns is wrong
And since when is the manufacture, distribution, and sale of handguns unfettered? Have these lawyers seen all the laws gun manufacturers have to go through?
We sold that gun to a police department who traded it in to a gun store who sold it to Mr. (Buford O.) Furrow
Now it comes out - they sold a gun to the cops. How could they not know that it would end up in the hands of a psycopathic homicidal racist? Sue 'em all...
Another bogus "whizzing into the wind" lawsuit.
Tort reform is way, WAAAY overdue in this country.
AMEN Brother!
I need to let Pizza Hut know that I love Glocks moreso than their pizza, hence no more Pizza Hut for me or my friends and family.
Huh? Pizza Hut is being sued, not suing. Or are you boycotting them for failing to allow employees who have CHL's to carry at work?
" Center to Prevent Handgun Violence in Washington, D.C., say courts are increasingly interested in holding gun sellers accountable. "
Wrong. In every case so far (except in very socialist San Francisco) the judges have thrown out the case(s)because the "plaintiffs lack standing". That is the kiss of death and is the worst possible decision for plaintiffs. So HCI and its lobbying wing the VPC, can all go to h*ll.
Glock is about as responsible for those deaths as Pizza Hut
That's right. Pizza hut needs to allow their employees to defend themselves, as a basic human right.
"Glock is about as responsible for those deaths as Pizza Hut"
Suggested Study:How many people have burned the roof of their mouths, choked, became overweight, or been poisoned by pizza?
I'm contacting Harvard and Yale to get grant money to follow this up!
FMCDH
?:
Glock [First Defendants]
and
Pizza Hut [Second Defendants]
PARTICULARS OF NEGLIGENCE AND BREACH OF DUTY
..... (xxi) The First Defendants failed to make their product sufficiently freely available and cheap for the Plaintiffs to easily obtain a plentiful supply of same to provide for their personal defense;
..... (xxxi) The Second Defendants failed to provide their staff with appropriate safety equipment in the form of personal firearms, thus preventing them from defending themselves from attack, in breach of the Second Defendant's duty of care as employers;
No? Oh well.
Why can't the Right make lawsuits against those bringing these suits as well? I mean it's time to start fighting fire with fire.
If Pizza Hut didn't have mozzarella cheese, nobody would have been there to be killed.
Actually, you can make a darned good pizza with cheddar.
When are we going to start suing Pizza Hut and the fast food industry for the manufacturing and distribution of artery-clogging products? Fast food has sent many, many more people to their early graves than guns and cigarettes combined. If the libs are so willing to take away freedoms that don't affect them, let's outlaw their happy meals, tell them what they can eat, and start putting parents in jail for throwing movie-pimping happy burgers at the kids in the back seat of the minivan. Let's show them where this freedom-grabbing trail that they're starting on can end up. Right on their own front porch.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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