Walter Allen (far right), the business partner to Mick Beatovic (middle) and Adam Allan, both former owners of the West Milwaukee gun store, are seen in court during the Badger Guns trial in a Milwaukee County Court. Credit: Mike De Sisti 
 
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 A jury late Tuesday found Badger Guns and its owner liable in the wounding of two Milwaukee police officers in a first-of-its-kind verdict that was being watched nationwide. 
 
 Jurors found Badger Guns broke four laws when a clerk sold a gun that was used to shoot Officer Bryan Norberg and former Officer Graham Kunisch in the head in 2009. 
 
 After nine hours of deliberation, the jury announced a verdict that included nearly $6 million in compensatory and punitive damages to the two officers. There will be an appeal. 
 
 This high-profile case was only the second of its kind nationwide to make it to a jury since Congress passed a law a decade ago holding gun dealers and manufacturers immune from such lawsuits. In the first, a jury found in favor of a gun store in Alaska. 
 
 The officers' attorney, Patrick Dunphy, said Norberg was "overwhelmed with emotion" by the verdict, while Kunisch, who suffered from brain damage in the shooting, was stoic — as he was for all of the trial. Norberg and Kunisch left the courthouse without commenting. 
 
 Dunphy said he knew the case would be tough because of the strong opinions around guns, but it was important to hold this business accountable for making a gun sale so riddled with red flags. 
 
 "I didn't want to send a message, I wanted to represent my clients, these two police officers," Dunphy said. "Will it change the way things are done around the country? Time will tell." 
 
 Shoddy practices cited 
 
 Brett Heaton Juarez, the jury's foreperson, said the jurors all agreed the business practices of Badger Guns were shoddy. He recounted testimony from the owners that they didn't train workers, didn't have policies and procedures they regularly followed, had not read federal regulations and didn't even know everything that was required on federal gun-selling forms. 
 
 "A responsible business owner would do more and everyone agreed on that from the start," he said. "Gun dealers have to do more than what we saw in this instance." 
 
 Heaton Juarez, of Milwaukee, who works in the financial sector, said the jury figured out damages by averaging jurors' opinions. They ranged from no money for the officers to much more than what was awarded. The jury awarded Kunisch about $3.5 million, Norberg $1.5 million and $730,000 in punitive damages. 
 
 The owners of Badger Guns, and its predecessor, Badger Outdoors, were not in court for the verdict. 
 
 A statement from Badger Guns' attorney James Vogts said, "When this case was filed, we knew it was likely to end up in the appellate courts. Significant legal issues were decided in the case that impacted the evidence the jury was permitted to consider and the legal standards they were told to apply. We will appeal." 
 
 Norberg and Kunisch were among six police officers wounded with guns sold by Badger Guns and Badger Outdoors. Two other officers have their own lawsuit set to go to trial next year, also in Milwaukee County courts. It's unclear if that trial will go ahead, Dunphy said. 
 
 The federal law passed in 2005 guarantees broad immunity to gun dealers. It allows for lawsuits when there are violations of the law by a gun shop, and that is what the Milwaukee officers alleged in their 2010 lawsuit. 
 
 In addition, Norberg and Kunisch contended that Badger Guns, Badger Outdoors, and their owners conspired to keep the gun-dealing operation going when federal regulators recommended revoking the license. 
 
 The jury found that Badger Guns had broken four of the five laws proposed to them in selling the gun and that the store "negligently entrusted" the firearm used to shoot the officers. 
 
 The jury did not find the owners of Badger Guns and Badger Outdoors conspired to sell guns unlawfully. On several questions, there were dissenting jurors. It required 10 of 12 jurors to find for the plaintiffs. 
 
 The conspiracy allegation rose out of how the store went from being Badger Outdoors to Badger Guns in 2007. 
 
 In 2006, regulators from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives recommended revoking Badger Outdoors' license. But there was no revocation. 
 
 The players then took on new roles and a new license was issued to Adam Allan, the son of former owner Walter Allan, creating what one federal official called a "clean slate," a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found. The other owner of Badger Outdoors, Mick Beatovic, said he always planned to retire. 
 
 The jury did not hear evidence about that recommended revocation because the owners said they didn't know about it until they read it in the Journal Sentinel. 
 
 Heaton Juarez said the jury of eight women and four men wondered if Badger Outdoors was in jeopardy of losing its license when the store changed hands. He said had they known revocation was recommended, they may have found in favor of the officers on that question, too. 
 
 Top crime gun sellers 
 
 Badger Guns and Badger Outdoors were top sellers of crime guns recovered in Milwaukee for more than a decade. In 2005, Badger Outdoors was the top seller of crime guns in the nation with 537 such weapons recovered. 
 
 Such gun trace data has not been released recently because of a secrecy measure passed by Congress. 
 
 Badger Guns' license was revoked by ATF in 2011 but the Jacob Collins transaction was not cited as a violation, so the jury did not hear that the store's license was revoked. 
 
 Michael Allan, Walter's other son, now runs a gun store in the same location. 
 
 Much of the nearly three-week trial focused on the events on a Saturday in May 2009. Collins came to Badger Guns on that day to buy a gun for Julius Burton, who was too young to buy a handgun from a store. 
 
 Dunphy laid out what he called telltale signs of a straw buy: Burton was in the store and pointed to the gun he wanted; Collins initially marked that he was not the buyer of the gun on the form, but was allowed to change that — and also change his address; Collins and Burton left the store to get more cash to pay for the gun; Collins didn't present an ID when he picked up the gun. 
 
 After the verdict, Dunphy said he thought the most telling testimony came from Badger Outdoors co-owner Beatovic, who said there were red flags in the sale of the gun to Collins. 
 
 Attorneys for the West Milwaukee gun dealer countered at closing that the evidence in the trial failed to show the clerk who sold the gun or the store owners had reason to believe the person was buying the gun for someone else. They said the blame falls on the man who shot the officers. 
 
 Norberg and Kunisch were shot by Burton during a routine stop on Milwaukee's near south side a month after the gun was sold. Burton is serving 80 years while Collins already finished his two years in federal prison. 
 
 At a news conference following the verdict, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett predicted the verdict would have national implications and called the actions of the owners a "clear cut case of negligence." 
 
 "They recognized way too late that what they were doing was wrong," Barrett said. 
 
 Jesse Garza of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report. ||||| A Wisconsin jury was in its second day of deliberations on Tuesday, in a rare case in which a gun dealer was accused of the illegal sale of a weapon that was then used to shoot two police officers. 
 
 
 
 Badger Guns, a seller on the outskirts of Milwaukee, “failed miserably” to protect the public when it allowed a 21-year-old to buy a gun on behalf of a friend who was underage and had accompanied him to the store, the jury heard in closing arguments on Monday. The common manoeuvre is known as a straw purchase. 
 
 The outcome of the civil trial could influence future legal actions against gun dealers or manufacturers after shootings, whether street murders, attacks on police or the kind of school or college massacre that dominates headlines in the US all too regularly. 
 
 A federal law passed in 2005 to protect the firearms industry against being sued by shooting victims, amid strong lobbying by the National Rifle Association, means lawsuits against gun companies usually struggle to get far. 
 
 The lawsuit in Wisconsin is believed to be only the second such case to reach a jury in 10 years, following a case in Alaska in the summer which found in favour of the gun shop. 
 
 In June 2009, Milwaukee police officers Bryan Norberg and Graham Kunisch were both shot in the face when they stopped 18-year-old Julius Burton for riding a bicycle on the sidewalk. The two officers survived, and were in court. 
 
 Burton shot the officers with a handgun he had acquired from Badger Guns. He was recorded on surveillance video pointing to a semi-automatic pistol in a display case and saying, “That’s the one I want,” Milwaukee county circuit court heard during the three-week trial. 
 
 He then helped Jacob Collins, whom he had paid $40 to make the straw purchase, to fill out paperwork. Burton corrected mistakes on the form, the court heard. The storekeeper helped. 
 
 Both Collins and Burton were convicted. Collins ended up serving two years in prison for the illegal purchase. Burton is serving 80 years for the shootings. 
 
 Norberg was shot through the mouth, and Kunisch lost an eye and suffered brain damage. Both officers still suffer from the physical and psychological effects of the incident, the court had heard. 
 
 Their lawsuit against Badger Guns has taken since 2010 to come to trial and is claiming $10m for the shop’s alleged part in causing the officers’ injuries. 
 
 Patrick Dunphy, the officers’ attorney, told the court in closing arguments on Monday that Badger Guns had “failed miserably” to protect the public and that store clerk Donald Flora and shop owner Adam Allan had made a sale that “frankly reeked with doubt”. 
 
 “A gun dealer can’t wash his hands, walk away from his job and turn a blind eye. The risk to the public is too great,” Dunphy said. 
 
 Allan’s lawyer, James Vogts, argued that the store was fully aware of what a straw purchase was and had no reason to believe Collins was illegally buying the gun for someone else. 
 
 Burton testified from prison that “everyone” knew Badger Guns was the place to go if you wanted to buy a gun illegally. 
 
 The shop had a long history of being involved in sales of guns that ended up being used in crimes, according to an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
 
 Such crimes included the shooting of several Milwaukee police officers, the newspaper reported, but secrecy laws protected the shop’s identity and a change of ownership within the same family and a tweak of its title to Badger Outdoors helped wipe out previous law violations. 
 
 The subject of gun safety is almost certain to be raised in the first Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday night, in the wake of the Oregon college shooting earlier in October.
– It could be the biggest blow to the gun industry in years, and it came not from the White House, but from a jury in Milwaukee. On Tuesday, Badger Guns was ordered to pay $6 million to two police officers who were shot in the face with a handgun bought at the store, NBC News reports. The badly injured officers sued the gun shop for negligence. The jury agreed that the store had been extremely negligent when it sold the firearm to a 21-year-old man who was buying it in a "straw purchase" for underage friend Julius Burton, who used it to shoot the officers, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The evidence included video of Burton pointing to the gun and saying, "That's the one I want," the Guardian reports. The ATF has described the Milwaukee store as one of America's top sellers of guns used in crimes, and 537 of its weapons were found at crime scenes in 2005 alone, NBC notes. The case is only the second one of its kind to go to trial since the passage of a 2005 law shielding gun dealers from such lawsuits, the Journal Sentinel reports; a gun store in Alaska won the previous case. The closely watched case could have major implications nationwide, but the officers' attorney tells the Journal Sentinel that he was out to represent his clients, not send a message. "Will it change the way things are done around the country? Time will tell," he says. (President Obama is looking into tightening a gun control rule.)