BB gun lawsuit

The San Angelo Standard-Times ^ | July 3, 2003 | JULIE SCHLABS

[FreedomCalls]

A boy visiting San Angelo was shot in the eye with a BB gun in July 2001, and his mother is going to the courts for relief.

According to court records, a young boy and his friend were playing with their BB guns in a living room. One of the boys pulled the trigger, documents state, but he didn't aim at his friend. The BB ricocheted and lodged into the other boys' left eye, where the fated BB remains.

The mother of the injured boy filed a civil suit this week in district court against the gun manufacturer and the hardware store that peddled the weapon. She's asking the court to award damages and attorney fees.

The suit charges that the two businesses breached products liability and negligently violated industry standards by failing to adequately warn of the dangers of the toy gun.

''The product was marketed as being less powerful than a real gun when it actually possessed power far above that which is reasonable and necessary for its intended use as a 'safer than real' gun. . . . '' the suit stated.

[marktwain]

BB guns launch BB's at normaly 250 fps, quite reliably, depending on model to some extent. It seems unlikely that it "richocheted into the eye". I would bet that the BB gun was pointed at the person.

[IYAS9YAS]

It was an icicle I tell you, an icicle.

[Studebaker Hawk]

...the gun manufacturer and the hardware store that peddled the weapon.

Is that supposed to be like "peddling" drugs, sex, etc?

Suprise, I smell bias here.

[SwinneySwitch]

GET YOUR FINGER OFF THAT TRIGGER, MAGGOT!

[You Gotta Be Kidding Me]

"I like your screen name. Can I borrow it for threads like this?"

But, of course!!!

[TheBattman]

Where was the "responsible" adult in this incedent?

Of course, no-one is blaming the parents - it's much easier to make the manufacturer and seller of the BB gun liable.


Back when I was 12 years old, I had a Crossman BB pistol. Well, the darned thing got jammed up, so in my infinite wisdom I decided to try to open the thing up - using a small hatchet as a pry-bar. Of coruse, I cut the snot out of my hand. Maybe my parents should have filed a lawsuit against Crossman and the store that sold it. They should have also filed suit against the hatchet manufacturer and seller for selling a dangerous tool....

[Ruth A.]

Kids do things their parents don't want them to do. That could be why they were in the front room. If the parents (not just the mother) were unaware, that could be understandable without calls of neglect. Sometimes naughtiness is undetected...for a while. When will kids learn that bad things don't stay hidden forever. Anyhow, she is definitely wrong for trying to turn this into a lawsuit. It is curious that they aren't releasing ages, don't you think?

[Ruth A.]

P.S. I hope each and every mother would whack their kid on the side of the head for always jumping so quickly to blame mothers. Stop making them look like they didn't raise you right.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

And kids do things their parents allow them to. And parents allow kids to do whatever they want. All the combinations are possible here. IMO: the parent is suing? The parent is trying to save face for their lack.

[longtermmemmory]

where is the welfare department? a mother allowing a child with a toy gun! what evil! this mother should be locked up for child endangerment! (/s)

[barkeep]

Happen to be in San Angelo, know a bit about how the city works. We have a particularly agressive tort firm here, Webb Stokes and Sparks, (who I will bet a dollar to a donut is in this one) but we also have notoriously stingy civil juries. I've seen them award one American dollar on cases I thought were good. This case is crap, and ain't going nowhere here.

[LibertarianInExile]

This case is CRYING for sanction. That this is even coming into a courtroom, that there is even a need for a defense attorney, is reason for a judge to slap the hell out of this plaintiff and her lawyers for bringing this joke of a suit into court.

I hope a judge has the sense to smack these leeches down for once.

[Jay D. Dyson]

These idiots have no case. Every BB gun I've ever purchased (and there were several) all came with explicit instructions to NOT use them indoors, to have them unloaded when not in use, and to ONLY point them at targets you intended to shoot!
(Many even had warnings not to use the BB guns to shoot at live animals.)

Given all this, the case is simply a matter of idiot user, idiot parents, and blameless manufacturer.

Were I judge on this case, I would give these people a good swift kick in the a$$.

-Jay

[barkeep]

One more reason to move towards the Brit system, under which if I bring a suit the judge finds not to have good foundation, then I pick up the tab for both party's legal fees. In my line of trade, I have had to go through deposition, preliminary hearings, etc. at my expense to defend idiotic cases brought under the Dram Shop law. Both times, we were able to show we had refused service to the idiot who then went and got in an accident (one of them across town and seven hours after we ran him off!) but we got to pay atty's fees. You want to see serious tort reform, this should be at the core of it.

[barkeep]

The obvious and unspoken point of this case is that neither Mommy or her trailer trash friend have enough money to interest a commission trial lawyer. The legal term is "limited and several liability" which loosely translated means go for the deep pockets regardless of how little blame they actually have.

[kAcknor]

Unsupervised kids + BB gun + loaded = Stupid

Once again.

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[Kenny Bunk]

So for potting sparrows off a roof ridge at 15 feet, this weapon is superb.

In fact I used to carry the Red Ryder on all my safaris, like over to my sister's room, and out to the barn, where my pals and I practiced igniting match-heads with its specially molded, and not-quite-round, state-of-the-art projectile. In fact, with handloads, we easily chronographed as high as 275 fps. We often took out elephant and tiger with it, from the pages of the National Geographic, where unfortunately it would go through several pages.

Unfortunately, this fine but fast-rusting example of the gunsmith's art was confiscated by my grandmother, when she discovered we were having BB-Gun wars. We did have proper PPE, including swim masks to protect ... you guessed it ...the ocular apparatus. But this early OSHA forerunner cut no ice with the old lady. Or anybody else's old lady.

When last seen, Grandma was taking domestic cat who were hanging out at the bird bath in her rose garden. Damn good shooting at 40 feet from her hunting blind, cunningly disguised as a kitchen window

[freepatriot32]

YOU'LL SHOOT YOUR EYE OUT KID

[Djarum]

Printed on the side of my Daisy:

WARNING: Misuse or careless use may cause serious injury or death. For use by ages 16 or older. Read manual before using.

[Old Professer]

Had it been a real gun, the boy who has the BB in his eye would have escaped injury as the bullet would have penetrated the wall; using this as a starting point, I suppose a case could be built for non-bouncing BB's.

The biggest problem in America today is that people assume that just because someone has money in his pocket, he has sense enough to spend it wisely.

(Now that I think about it, didn't Bill Clinton intimate that perhaps we couldn't be trusted with a tax refund?)