A Misguided Lawsuit

According to CNN, a family is sueing WalMart because they sold her daughter the gun she used to commit suicide.

This is a sad thing. That anyone should feel compelled to take her own life is not good. But is WalMart to blame?

I doubt it.

There is a trend in this country away from taking personal responsibility for one’s life. That’s wrong in my opinion. But this might be a special case because the woman in question suffered from mental illness and was taking medication for it’s treatment. It’s possible that she wasn’t capable of taking responsibility for her own life. I don’t know. But, if she wasn’t then her family should have been taking that responsibility. The expectation that it is everyone else’s responsibility has far reaching consequences that I doubt we really want to see come to pass.

According to the article, this woman lied on the application to buy the gun. The family believes that because her prescriptions were filled at another WalMart that this should have been checked. But, wouldn’t this be an invasion of privacy? I wouldn’t want someone checking with my pharmacy in order for me to buy something.

This is a sad situation but, to me, it doesn’t appear to be WalMart’s fault. It probably isn’t anyone’s fault. People who are intent on suicide tend to succeed. It’s natural to want someone to blame and WalMart is certainly no corporate saint, but blaming them is, I think, unwarranted.