Widow Of Slain Chicago PD Officer Sues Armslist

Chicago Police Commander Paul Blauer lost his life in the line of duty. For someone like me who grew up in a law-enforcement family, I can only imagine what his family must have gone through. I know I imagined it happening to my father more than once through the years, wondering how my family would continue.

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For Blauer’s family, though, that plan involves filing a lawsuit against the website his widow has decided to blame.

The widow of slain Chicago Police Cmdr. Paul Bauer has sued the website used to sell the gun tied to her husband’s murder.

The 9-millimeter Glock pistol that four-time felon Shomari Legghette allegedly used to kill Bauer in 2018 was sold by a Wisconsin man on Armslist.com, one of the nation’s largest online gun marketplaces.

According to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday in Milwaukee by Bauer’s wife, Erin, and the nonprofit gun control group Brady, the site negligently allowed sales of weapons without background checks, allowing Legghette to get his hands on the alleged murder weapon.

Other websites have features that prevent unlicensed sellers from selling guns in large numbers, and from selling to customers who are legally barred from owning firearms, said Jonathan Lowy, chief counsel for Brady.

“We can’t know what would have happened if Armslist was not negligent…but we do know what did happen: someone who should not have had a gun was able to get one, and a police commander is dead,” Lowy said.

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The thing is, Armslist just facilitates a face-to-face transfer. It’s no different than someone answering a classified ad in the newspaper. As such, they’re not responsible for what two individuals do after that meeting.

And no, it’s not just me saying that. Cam wrote about a similar case in Wisconsin that the Supreme Court refused to allow to go forward back in November.

Then why would the widow push this now?

The answer is simple. First, dipsticks from Brady show up on the doorstep of someone like Mrs. Blauer who is hurting and angry that their loved one is gone, then offers them someone to blame, someone the can make pay. Sure. Shomari Legghette is probably going to go to prison, but there’s someone else to blame, they argue.

They prey on vulnerable, grieving family members so they can push these lawsuits, lawsuits they then use to try and fundraise so they can justify their existence.

It’s unlikely Blauer’s widow knew anything about the Wisconsin case. It’s unlikely Brady told her anything about it and unless you religiously follow this stuff, you’re not likely to even know it happened.

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After all, if anyone were honest about it, there’s no reason to believe that this case will be any different than that one. After all, it’s the same Supreme Court. It’s not any different than it was back in November when they slapped that other case down.

But Brady doesn’t care about that.

At my most charitable, I can only imagine they think they can sue Armslist into oblivion simply be keeping up these kinds of frivolous lawsuits until the company just can’t afford to defend against them anymore.

That’s not very charitable, either, but that’s the only reason other than money-grubbing I’ve come up with so far.

Meanwhile, grieving people like Mrs. Blauer are taken advantage of by predatory activists. It’s par for the course from this crowd, though.

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