The Wisconsin Supreme Court grappled with the potential liability of a website that brokers gun sales between third parties in oral arguments Thursday, considering whether or not it is negligent for the website to facilitate possibly illegal gun sales without directly publishing the ads for those gun sales itself.
The case is connected to a 2012 shooting at the Azana Spa and Salon in Brookfield, a town roughly 10 miles west of Milwaukee. The shooter, Radcliffe Haughton, entered the salon and opened fire, killing two bystanders, himself and his estranged wife, Zina Daniel Haughton.
An investigation of that shooting turned up that Haughton purchased the gun he used on Armslist, a gun sales brokerage website that facilitates firearm sales between third-party buyers and sellers.
Haughton, however, was prohibited from gun ownership by both state and federal law because of a prior domestic violence conviction.
While federally-licensed firearm dealers are required by law to run background checks on potential buyers, unlicensed private sellers are not. Armslist ostensibly finds its niche relative to this private-seller realm, providing a platform for sales between private sellers.
https://www.courthousenews.com/gun-broker-website-argues-its-not-liable-for-2012-shooting/