Always remembered, always honored, always loved
On July 20, 2012, twelve people, including our daughter, Jessi Redfield Ghawi, were murdered inside a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. Fifty-eight others suffered gunshot wounds, and more were injured while trying to escape the gunfire.
Fourteen years later, we remember and honor those who were killed, the survivors, their families, first responders, and the communities.
And we miss our Jessi so very much.
Jonathan Blunk, 25
Alexander J. Boik, 18
Jesse Childress, 29
Gordon Cowden, 51
Jessi Redfield Ghawi, 24
John Larimer, 27
Matt McQuinn, 27
Micayla Medek, 23
Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6
Alex Sullivan, 27
Alexander C. Teves, 24
Rebecca Wingo, 32
The unborn baby of Ashley Moser
Fourteen Years After Jessi’s Death: The Question the Courts Never Were Allowed to Answer and the Lives that Might Have Been Impacted
Whether the firearm industry has evolved differently because PLCAA substantially limited many negligence and product liability claims deserves careful examination.
We were among the survivors who were left behind the night in 2012. In the years that followed, we brought a lawsuit against the online firearms retailer Lucky Gunner who sold 4,000 rounds of ammunition to the person who murdered Jessi, eleven others, and wreaked havoc in so many lives.
The lawsuit was not about monetary damages. Instead, we sought to require changes to Lucky Gunners’ sales practices that would reduce the likelihood of firearms and ammunition being sold to another killer.
Tragically, our lawsuit was dismissed under Colorado’s version of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), the federal law enacted in 2005 that generally shields firearm manufacturers and sellers from many lawsuits arising from the criminal misuse of firearms. (Colorado’s firearm industry immunity law was repealed in 2023 by Jessi’s Law, named after our daughter.) Because our case was dismissed, a court never considered the merits of those proposed changes or determined whether they should become the standard for online firearm retailers.
That raises a question that remains unanswered fourteen years after the massacre in Aurora:
When courts cannot hear negligence claims against firearm manufacturers and retailers, how does that affect the development of industry safety standards?
In 2018, Lucky Gunner sold ammunition and a firearm to a minor through a Lucky Gunner website but failed to check the buyer’s age. That minor then used the firearm and ammunition to kill ten people and injure 13 others on May 18, 2018 at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas.
The Santa Fe shooting survivors filed a lawsuit, claiming Lucky Gunner violated federal law by selling handgun and shotgun ammunition to a minor. Lucky Gunner attempted to have the lawsuit dismissed using the federal PLCAA law, but this time the lower courts and the Texas Supreme Court rejected these efforts, allowing the case to proceed. In 2023, Lucky Gunner agreed to maintain an age verification system at the point of sale for all ammunition purchases.
No one will ever know if the lives in Santa Fe or others could have been saved if our lawsuit against Lucky Gunner had not been prevented by the arms industry immunity granted by the US Congress.
In many industries, civil litigation has played an important role in improving public safety. Lawsuits have led companies to redesign products, strengthen warnings, adopt safer business practices, improve quality control, and change marketing strategies. Even cases that do not result in a plaintiff’s victory often influence corporate behavior by establishing expectations for reasonable care.
PLCAA did not become law by chance. It was championed by legislators, including the late Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who was one of the law’s principal Senate supporters. Following Senator Graham’s passing this month, much has been written about his decades of public service and his legislative legacy. Among that legacy is PLCAA—a law that has profoundly shaped the legal relationship between the firearm industry, the civil justice system, and victims of gun violence for nearly two decades.
Whether the firearm industry has evolved differently because PLCAA substantially limited many negligence and product liability claims deserves careful examination.
Those are not questions about assigning blame for a single tragedy. They are questions about how the law shapes corporate behavior, how safety standards evolve, and how society balances accountability with legal protections.
Fourteen years after Aurora, they remain questions worth asking.
As we remember our daughter Jessi Redfield Ghawi and the eleven others killed in Aurora, we also remember the legal questions that were never allowed to be answered and the violence that might have been prevented if the arms industry were held accountable.