NCJ Number
190128
Journal
Maryland Law Review Volume: 60 Issue: 2 Dated: 2001 Pages: 441-464
Date Published
2001
Length
24 pages
Annotation
Utilizing a 1993 Maryland Court of Appeals case, this note drew on common law principles to propose a framework for recognizing a duty on the part of retail gun stores to safeguard dangerous instrumentality (guns) and for defining a cause of action for breaches of that duty.
Abstract
In a time of escalating violence perpetrated with illegal firearms, public policy demanded that the law recognize a duty on the part of handgun merchants to exercise reasonable care in conducting their business. Referencing Valentine v. On Target, Inc., the Court of Appeals of Maryland considered what duty, if any, a retail gun store owner owed to third parties in exercising reasonable care to prevent theft and subsequent criminal misuse of those handguns. In 1993, Edward McLeod and an unidentified companion stole several handguns from On Target, Inc., a firearms retailer in Maryland. Two-months later a woman was fatally shot outside her home with one of the guns stolen from On Target, Inc. This case could have been resolved on a relatively simple procedural basis, but the plaintiff’s complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. As the Court of Appeals observed, extending a gun store’s liability to the general public on the well-pleaded facts of Valentine would have inappropriately created a doctrine of absolute liability. It was recommended that Maryland recognize a common law action for negligent storage of firearms. This would require gun retailers exercise reasonable care for the benefit of their community and would adequately support both cost-benefit and foreseeable arguments.