Michigan shooting survivor files lawsuit against company that sells ghost guns

By Elle Meyers

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    DETROIT, Michigan (WWJ) — All it took was a credit card and the internet for Guy Boyd’s life to change forever.

Boyd’s friend bought and assembled a ghost gun kit when the boys were 17 years old, created a firearm, and accidentally shot Boyd in the face. This week Boyd filed a lawsuit against the company that sold the kit.

“He lived, he has a TBI, he lost his eye, he’s now considered an epileptic, he has a lot of memory issues,” said Denise Wieck, Boyd’s mother.

Before the shooting, his mom says Boyd participated in activities like football, swimming and Boy Scouts. All those activities fell by the wayside after being shot by a friend who bought the kit through JSD Supply.

“At the heart of our case is the simple proposition that children should not be able to purchase firearms,” said Len Kamdang, who works as the senior director of litigation strategy and trials for Everytown Law. “Because JSD Supply set up a business model where they didn’t do any sorts of meaningful verifications about age, criminal history, mental health status it became very very easy for a 17-year-old who needed nothing more than a credit card, the internet and a home address to get a gun shipped directly to his door.”

Everytown Law is the litigation arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun safety organization. Kamdang said the website from which the ghost gun kit was purchased actively advertises how easy it is to build a firearm from one of their kits.

“In these kits, you have every single thing you need to build a firearm,” he said. “When you buy these two kits together ATF has observed that these kits can be put together in as little as 30 minutes and you can be on the range shooting a gun and firing bullets.”

Alongside compensation for Boyd’s medical bills, his mother said she would like to see a change in the gun culture in our country.

“We really need to have reform, and ghost guns– the loophole that they have that just because they’re 80% done they’re not considered guns this is proof that just a couple of drill holes and a couple pieces. It’s a gun,” Wiek said.

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