A teen who was accidentally shot in the face by a ghost gun filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the company that sold the gun kit and his former best friend who shot him.
Guy Boyd, a 19-year old Michigan man, filed a lawsuit against online firearms dealer JSD Supply of Pennsylvania, and Boyd’s friend Kyle Thueme, who was 17 when he purchased a gun kit from the dealer without verification of age or a background check. Michigan and Federal law prohibits minors like Thueme from purchasing or possessing a pistol.
The "negligent and illegal sales of ghost gun kits to a teenager was no random accident," the lawsuit said. "For years, defendant JSD proudly, publicly, yet falsely advertised that the guns assembled from its kits required no licensing, could be owned completely 'off the books,' and required 'absolutely no paperwork.'"
JSD labels its kits as “80% pistols” but often included “everything needed to finish your own pistol.” The company advertises its kits as needing no “serialization, no background check, no government fee,” the lawsuit alleges.
Thueme paid $464.97 for the “Build and Completion Kit” on April 9, 2021 to be shipped to his home. His mother discovered the firearm and took it away, but Thueme purchased a second batch of kits on April 27, 2021 for $474.92
On the night of May 30, 2021 and into May 31, 2021, Thueme and Boyd were hanging out in a trailer in the driveway of Boyd’s then-girlfriend, drinking and smoking marijuana.
Theume brought out his firearm and with the barrel pointed at Boyd, pulled the trigger “hoping it was empty,” according to the filing. The gun fired a bullet through Boyd’s eye.
Boyd now suffers from ongoing, life-threatening seizures and “will forever experience decreased physical and mental functionality.”
The lawsuit was filed by Everytown Law in partnership with Bloch & White and the University of Michigan Law School Civil-Criminal Litigation Clinic.