This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by phone at 988, or online at https://988lifeline.org/.
Shortly after graduating high school, an 18-year-old Louisvillian purchased a ghost gun kit from an online Nebraska-based seller. He was not old enough to legally purchase a pistol nor would he have passed a background check due to a recent criminal record, a lawsuit alleges.
Within a week, Henry Coby Willis, a Seneca High School graduate who was beginning to experience symptoms of schizophrenia and had a recent severe neck injury, used that gun to kill himself, according to the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit filed in Jefferson Circuit Court, his mother is asking a judge to find the website that sold her son the kit, Husky Armory, was negligent and wrongfully caused his death. She is represented by Kentucky attorney Tad Thomas and Everytown Law, a national law group that advocates for gun safety.
Eric Tirschwell, the executive director of Everytown Law, told Kentucky Public Radio that a normal gun seller would have “run into a brick wall” that would have prevented the sale.
“Because Henry was too young, because he had had issues with the law, and because he would have presented as somebody who was in the midst of a mental health crisis,” Tirschwell said. “But because of the way this business was set up, none of those checks were done, and again, the results are the tragic outcome that unfortunately is at the heart of this lawsuit.”
The kits are called ghost guns because manufacturers sell them as parts, without serial numbers or the usual background checks. The parts sold to Willis in 2023 was an “80% build kit.” On their website, Husky Armory says the kits “help you build your own ghost gun at home.”
“If you would like to build a gun with a kit shipped directly to your door that does not include unconstitutional checks and waiting periods, Husky Armory has you covered,” the website said as of July 29.
Husky Armory did not respond to requests for comment.
A 2022 Biden administration rule requires background checks and serial numbers for certain gun kits and a Supreme Court decision in March upheld that rule. But NPR reported earlier this month that President Donald Trump’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is reviewing that rule among others under an executive order that calls for a review of regulations "that purport to promote safety but may have impinged on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens."
Bill Sack, the director of legal operations for the Second Amendment Foundation told Kentucky Public Radio they believe the rule extends beyond the ATF’s authority and is too broad in defining what a “gun” is.
“What the Biden rulemaking does is, rather than creating a bright line test of like, okay, if it has the following features, the following capabilities, the following components, then it's a gun, instead, it creates a seven factor, non dispositive test,” Sack said. “On a case by case basis, the ATF will determine if a random piece of metal, steel, wood, old Chinese newspapers is a gun or not, based on once they look at it and review it and put it through their magic black box.”
Sack said the 2nd Amendment protects gun manufacturing for personal use. He also said that trying to prevent suicide by limiting access to guns is a poor method.
“Regrettably, people that you know are intent on harming themselves or others will typically find a way of doing that and trying to restrict their ability to find any different means by which they could do that is probably not the most effective way of preventing them from doing so,” Sack said.
A recent report from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that suicide by firearm in 2023 was at record levels for the third year in a row. The majority of gun deaths have been suicides since 1995.
Willis was too young to purchase a handgun from a licensed firearm dealer in Kentucky, but the same restriction does not apply to unlicensed sellers. The lawsuit alleges Husky Armory has also violated the law by operating without a federal firearm license.
Federal law does prohibit individuals convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence crime from possessing a firearm. According to court records, Willis was found guilty of domestic violence assault resulting in minor injury in March 2023.
Thomas and Tirschwell say it is the first case to their knowledge of ghost guns litigation in Kentucky courts. But Everytown Law has filed lawsuits over the gun kits in several other states, including Virginia, where a teenager with a ghost gun killed two other teens, and in Michigan, where a teen accidentally fired a ghost gun, wounding another.
“Unfortunately, these cases have popped up all over the country, and I know for our client here bringing this case, one of the most important goals is to try to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening to another family,” Tirschwell said.
The lawsuit asks the judge to award monetary damages, which Thomas said is the only thing a jury can award for these allegations under Kentucky law.
“Hopefully, a jury holding Husky accountable here and giving a financial award is going to be enough of a deterrent, not only for Husky, but for other manufacturers and sellers to stop doing this,” Thomas said. “That's what we want, is to prevent other loss of life.”
*This story has been updated to include additional details.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
