Milwaukee gun store found negligent in shooting of police officers

A Milwaukee jury made history Tuesday: They ordered Badger Guns, in Milwaukee, Wis., to pay nearly $6 million to two police officers who were shot with a gun purchased from the store.

This is the first time a jury has found a gun store liable since a federal law passed ten years ago that made gun stores and manufacturers largely immune to such cases.

The officers, Bryan Norberg and Graham Kunisch, were both shot in the head by 18-year-old Julius Burton during a routine stop in 2009. The officers survived, but Kunisch was forced to retire due to his injuries.

The officers' lawsuit contended that Badger Guns broke the law five different ways during the sale of the gun Burton used, according to John Diedrich, who has been covering the story for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Diedrich joined MPR News' Tom Weber to discuss the case and what happens next.

When police began investigating how Burton obtained the weapon, they found surveillance footage of him at Badger Guns a month before the shooting. Then 18, Burton was too young to purchase a handgun at the store, but he accompanied 21-year-old John Collins, who bought the gun instead.

The footage, Diedrich said, "shows that while Collins is the buyer, Burton is very interested in the firearms." Burton is seen pointing out the weapon. Collins ends up purchasing it, even after some of his responses on the federally-mandated paperwork should have raised a red flag for the store clerk.

This is what investigators call a straw sale, when a person who can legally purchase a gun does so for someone who cannot. Cracking down on straw sales at gun stores has been a priority for law enforcement.

Badger Guns was already well-known to Milwaukee police. The store had been a top supplier of guns recovered by law enforcement not just in the city, but in the country.

"We're talking 450 to 530 gun traces that were coming back to the store" per year, Diedrich said.

While this ruling is a rebuke of the store's gun sales practices, Diedrich said the case is not over.

"It's going to be appealed, that's already been announced by the defendants' attorney, the gun store's attorney," Diedrich said. "This could be winding through the courts here in Wisconsin for years to come."