Roughly 500 people are killed in the United States each year due to the accidental discharge of firearms and many more suffer severe injuries due to gun mishaps. In some of those cases, the incidents were the result of a faulty or defective firearm.
If you or a loved one was injured by a gun that may have been defective, you could have a lawsuit against the manufacturer. You should contact one of the experienced product liability attorneys at Kline & Specter, PC, through this website or by calling 215-772-1000.
With more than 50 lawyers, five of whom are also medical doctors, Kline & Specter has the resources and experience to litigate complex product liability cases such as those involving gun defects against major manufacturers.
The law firm has successfully sued gun manufacturers. In one notable case, this one involving a Daisy air rifle that fired BBs and pellets, a defective air rifle resulted in a teenager suffering a severe brain injury when he was shot in the head, a BB piercing his skull. Tucker Mahoney eventually died from his injuries. A lawsuit resulted in a substantial monetary settlement. (See Mahoney v. Daisy)
Accidental gun firings due to defects are not as uncommon as you might think. A recent lawsuit in Montana alleged that Remington Arms Co. sold millions of bolt-action rifles with a defect that could cause them to fire without the trigger being pulled.
In Alabama, a 28-year-old man was severely injured when his PT111 9mm Millennium Taurus handgun reportedly fell to the floor and discharged. The gun was in a holster with the safety in the “on” position when it hit the ground. Jury agreed with the man’s attorneys that the gun’s firing pin block safety was defective and awarded a verdict of $1.25 million.
Among some of the more commonly reported problems with guns that may be the result of product defects include trigger safety failure, overly sensitive triggers, design flaws, barrel failures and inaccurate chamber indicators.
Even gun accessories have been found to contain defects. In one such case, reported in The Legal Intelligencer, a Philadelphia jury in October 2016 handed down a $2.6 million verdict against a company that manufactured a faulty handgun holster. The holster caused a Pennsylvania state trooper’s gun to discharge as he was exiting his vehicle, wounding him in the leg.