A Kentucky jury has ordered the maker of a gun-building kit to pay $104 million in damages to the family of an 18-year-old who used a “ghost gun” to commit suicide in 2023. It was said to be the largest verdict ever against a gun seller.
The jury found that the online retailer Husky Armory LLC, based in Omaha, flouted federal law and 2022 regulations by failing to verify the age of Henry Willis o
r to run a background check on him. The pistol had no serial number or sales record attached, the family’s
lawyers said. The online company also operated without a federal firearms license, The New York Times reported.
The young man ordered the kit and assembled it in his dad’s garage, according to news reports.
The verdict was $4 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages.
The company did not appear to contest the wrongful death lawsuit, nor did it attend the two-week trial in Louisville, the Louisville Courier Journal noted.
“A child in crisis should never be able to access a deadly weapon,” Willis’ mother, Laura Herp, sai
d at a news conference, the Associated Press reported. “Companies like Husky Armory thrive off selling to
folks who shouldn’t have access to firearms, and they didn’t care who Henry was. They didn’t even bother showing up to the trial.”
The company did not respond to a request for comment, the Times noted.
It was not reported if Husky Armor carried liability insurance or which carrier may have written a polic
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y. Previously, the largest verdict against a gun seller was $73 million, awarded to families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, from the Remington rifle-making company.
The verdict came 15 months after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Biden administration regulations on ghost guns, 2022 regulations that required the age verificatio
n and background checks on buyers, and serial numbers on the gun kits as the use of the 3D-printed guns soared nationwide, AP reported. The Trump administration had ordered a challenge to the regulations.
