A Omaha-based company that sells build-your-own firearms just got hit with what attorneys say is a record-shattering bill. A Jefferson County, Kentucky jury has ordered Husky Armory and its parent firm, Up North Media, to pay roughly $104 million to the family of Henry Willis, an 18-year-old Louisville man who died by suicide in 2023 after assembling one of the company's "ghost gun" kits. This is believed to be the largest-ever verdict against a gun seller, eclipsing the $73 million Remington was ordered to pay to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting, reports the AP.
- The ghost gun company and its parent "ghosted" the trial, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. The companies never responded to the wrongful-death suit, never appeared in court, and were found liable last fall by default. The jury then set $4.2 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages—$25 million more than the family's lawyers requested.
Husky Armory, which is not a federally licensed gun dealer, marketed untraceable Polymer 80 pistol kits with slogans like "No Registration, No FFL." Expert testimony described how a novice could turn the parts into a working handgun in under an hour using basic tools. Willis, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was suffering a mental health crisis, was able to buy the kit online and receive it by mail, even though he was 18, too young to buy a handgun. He had also been required to surrender any firearms after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge. "A licensed gun dealer would have stopped this sale cold," attorney Tad Thomas told the jury. Willis killed himself six days after he assembled the gun. He had told his father he was building a transistor radio in the garage.
Everytown Law, which backed the case, said the verdict is meant to warn ghost gun sellers that skirting federal gun rules can carry massive financial risk. Herp said her son, who loved singing and playing the guitar, was a "kind, gentle child" who struggled with mental health issues in the months before his suicide, the AP reports. "A child in crisis should never be able to access a deadly weapon," she said. "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."
- (If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.)
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