Shooting Sparks Gun Modification

Yahoo News ^ | 7 March 2002 | Staff

[45Auto]

The Remington Arms Company is offering to modify a bolt lock on some 2.5 million rifles following the accidental shooting death of a 9-year-old boy, the company said Wednesday. The modification is being offered to the owners of all the Remington bolt-action rifles manufactured before 1982.

Remington says the effort was initiated in part as a response to the death of Gus Barber, who was accidentally shot by his mother two years ago as she was unloading her Remington 700 bolt-action rifle. The family, of Manhattan, Mont., said the presence of a bolt-lock mechanism required Barbara Barber to release the safety in order to open the bolt to eject the chambered round.

The trigger was not pulled or even touched, but the rifle immediately fired on safety release, the family said.

"The gun went off. My finger was nowhere near the trigger," Barbara Barber said in an interview last year with CBS. Remington is offering to remove the bolts and clean and inspect the rifles for $20 each. The rifles will be returned with a $20 coupon toward the purchase of Remington products, the company said on its Web site.

A call placed to Remington's headquarters in Madison was not returned Wednesday. In a letter to CBS Evening News, the company said, "The Barber family knows it has our deepest sympathy."

[45Auto]

Gun control advocates bear the direct responsibility for this tragedy. Their constant moves to ban the possession of arms and their assinine insistence on making guns "fool proof" have lead to EXACTLY the kind of thing that RKBA advocates/Friends of Liberty have been predicting: Making machines more complicated under the guise of "safety" really makes them MORE dangerous. Gun safety begins between the ears of the gun owner, but trying to engineer in absolute safety can only make things more dangerous as this little episode demonstrates.

[45Auto]

I "fix" my collection of Remington 700's by completely swapping the new "safety" bolt for the old simple bolt.

[Texaggie79]

[TheDon]

Agreed. Of course, this incident points out the importance of a basic firearm safety rule: Don't point at anything you don't intend to shoot, regardless of whether or not your firearm is loaded. A very sad incident.

[45Auto]

The ultimate responsibility for firearm safety rests with the person who has his/her hands on the gun. But trying to make guns "PC" and absolutely safe is a fool's errand and will only lead to more of these incidents.

[CONSERVE]

bang

[HELLRAISER II]

I don't believe for a second that gun went off without either being dropped or her accidentally pulling the trigger. I feel for the parents, but this just doesn't sound right to me. I salute Remington for checking the guns, but I have a Remington 700 and it's a great gun. Even if the gun did go off by itself, she should had the barrel pointing away from her child, preferably at the ground.

[SauronOfMordor]

So let me get this straight: she was handling a loaded rifle while it was pointing at her kid?

Never trust safeties.
Guns are always assumed to be loaded
Never point a gun at anything you would be upset to see destroyed

[spqrzilla9]

I like the old locking bolt on my pre 82 Remington 700 and have no intention of having it modified.

That said, I think Remington is making a mistake with this bizarre middle road compromise. If they think the bolt lock should be removed, it should be a free mod. If they don't think the bolt lock should be removed, they should not publicize the mod.

[TheDon]

Agreed, but try telling that to a liberal... They are in a state of constant responsibility denial.

[Falcon4.0]

Safety isn't a lever. It IS making sure that the muzzel is pointed in a safe direction!

[jim997]

All right, who let a woman hold a gun?

[Noslrac]

If I remember right there was a condition where you could pull the trigger with the saftey on (maybe it was even hold the trigger) Then when you set the saftey to off the pin would drop. Its been a while since I heard this, but perhaps this is what it is in reference to.

[JRandomFreeper]

Never point a gun at anything you would be upset to see destroyed

Worth repeating.

/john

[mamelukesabre]

who the * is pointing a loaded rifle at their son?? Especially since she aknowledges she knew it was loaded! This woman should be tarred and feathered and run out of town. "my finger was no where near the trigger" Yeah, like I'm gonna beleive that story. This reminds me of a similar story involving certain '80's model audi stationwagons and "unintended accelleration". What a crock.

[Noslrac]

It wouldn't take him being in the same room. A high-power rifle can go through walls/floors easily. However, I don't know the secifics of the story.

[HELLRAISER II]

Well that's a possibility, but that's not what was said in the article. Again I'm not being a hard @ss cause I know that this was a terrible thing to have happen but we have to be smart when handling guns & I don't think she was.

[antaresequity]

I have a PSS 700 .308 I bought about a 1-1/2 years ago...maybe 2 years.

Is this subject to this? I havn't had any problems with it.

[Noslrac]

The modification is being offered to the owners of all the Remington bolt-action rifles manufactured before 1982.

Seems to be something with the older guns.

[mv1]

and their assinine insistence on making guns "fool proof" have lead to EXACTLY the kind of thing

That is the truth