Lawsuit accuses Omaha-based company of selling ‘ghost gun’ to Kentucky teen who died by suicide

This story discusses suicide and mental health issues. If you’re in crisis, help is available: Call the national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 or chatting online at 988Lifeline.org.

Henry Willis was an 18-year-old recent high school graduate in Louisville, Kentucky, in the summer of 2023.

He was learning to play guitar and teaching his youngest brother how to roller skate. His mother, Laura Herp, said he was a “gentle, sensitive child at the center of our family’s world.”

“As he grew into his teen years, we watched as serious mental health challenges ripped away his joy,” Herp said. “After months of struggle, Henry was back in therapy, and I really felt as though he could turn the page on this painful chapter.”

On July 6, 2023, Omaha-based Husky Armory sold Willis a gun-building kit from its website. Six days after it arrived by mail, on July 30, 2023, Willis died by suicide using a handgun built from the kit, according to a July 28 news release from Everytown for Gun Safety.

Now, Herp has filed a lawsuit against Husky Armory and its parent company Up North Media, claiming they “did not meaningfully verify whether Henry was old enough to legally purchase or possess such a weapon – he was not – or conduct a background check, which he would have failed.”

“I firmly believe my son would be alive today if Husky Armory hadn’t sold him that handgun kit,” Herp said in the news release. “Far too many families share my pain – I just want to make sure no one experiences a similar tragedy in the future.”

Husky Armory is not a federally licensed gun dealer, the lawsuit says, but its website advertised that the kit included “everything you need” to build a handgun from “the comfort of your home,” and “nearly anyone with a brain” could assemble it.

“Defendants had sold Henry a no-background-check, no-serial-number ‘ghost gun’ kit,” the lawsuit says. “Henry, who had no prior experience with machining, was able to readily convert the kit to a fully operational pistol.”

Willis paid $499.99 for the kit and $25.99 for the magazine, the lawsuit says.

Related: Mother sues Des Moines Public Schools after teen’s suicide, blames bullying, suspensions

The lawsuit claims Husky Armory began selling firearms “in the form of easy-to-assemble, almost-complete, all-parts-included kits” to circumvent restrictions that normally apply to gun sales and “profit from an illegal market.”

Husky Armory currently maintains a headquarters and warehouse in Omaha, but it’s not a “brick-and-mortar retailer,” the lawsuit says, and only conducts firearms sales online.

The lawsuit specifically accused the company of negligence, negligent entrustment and wrongful death, and it asks for compensatory and punitive damages.

Supreme Court previously upheld some ‘ghost gun’ regulations

In March 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Biden administration-era regulation of “ghost guns,” ruling that some weapon parts kits and unfinished frames or receivers can be subject to background checks and other requirements, USA TODAY reported.

The court wrote in its decision that Polymer80 “Buy Build Shoot” kits – a kit with the same parts as the one purchased by Willis – “clearly qualify” as a weapon.

“It is so easy to assemble that, in an ATF test, an individual who had never before encountered the kit was able to produce a gun from it in 21 minutes using only ‘common’ tools and instructions found in publicly available YouTube videos,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority.

More than half of US gun deaths are suicides

In 2023 – the same year Willis died by suicide – gun suicides reached a new high in the U.S. for the third straight year, with 27,300 deaths, or 58% of all gun deaths, according to a report from the Center for Gun Violence Solutions and the Center for Suicide Prevention at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In Kentucky, where Willis lived, suicide is the second-leading cause of death for youth and young adults, and a survey found that 15% of high school students in the state reported having seriously considered suicide within a 12-month period. More than half of all gun deaths in Kentucky in 2021 were suicides.

How to get help

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, confidential, free help is available by calling or texting the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or chatting at 988lifeline.org.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration also lists different resources and ways to find help.

NAMI Nebraska has resources specific to the state, including the Behavioral Health Connection program, which helps adults in the Omaha metro area with psychological or substance use disorders connect to the community’s resources.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Lawsuit says Omaha-based company sold ‘ghost gun’ to Kentucky teen