Firearms Accidents

Although unintentional firearm-related fatalities have dropped sharply in the last decade, hundreds of people die and thousands are injured due to firearm accidents in the U.S. each year.

Depending upon the circumstances surrounding a firearm-related accident, a claim for damages may be filed based on product liability or negligence theories of recovery. If you or a loved one has been injured in a firearm accident, it is important that you consult with an attorney who is knowledgeable and experienced in at least both these areas of the law specific to the jurisdiction where the accident happened. It may also be in your interest to do so sooner than later since statutes of limitations, or deadlines by which a claim can be filed, may apply.

If the weapon involved in the accident was defective, you may be able to recover damages under product liability law. The firearm may have been marketed with inadequate instructions or warnings. Or perhaps the flaw was due to a manufacturing defect. If the firearm can be shown to have been defective and that the defect caused the harm, the manufacturer, the distributor and the seller of the firearm are all potentially liable.

It is usually not enough to argue that there is a design defect because a firearm is inherently dangerous. But because firearms are inherently dangerous, some courts have found manufacturers liable because an alternative design available at the time the firearm was made could have reduced the foreseeable risk of the harm that was caused, especially if the cost to the manufacturer of implementing the alternative design is deemed to have been reasonably “affordable”.

If the firearm was not defective, to succeed in a negligence claim, the court will often look at some of the following factors:

* Were federal, state or local laws imposing a duty on the owner, seller, or distributor of the firearm broken? Was the firearm sold to a felon, a minor, or an incompetent person?
* Did the defendant give a firearm or allow it to be used by someone the defendant had reason to know was inexperienced, incompetent, or reckless?
* Did the defendant know the firearm may have been used even without the defendant’s permission or was the firearm stored in such a way that it was likely to be misused (by children, for example)?
* Was the harm to the injured foreseeable and to what degree of certainty?
* Was the breach of duty the actual cause of the injury? How close was the connection between the defendant’s conduct and the plaintiff’s injury?
* If a burden of duty or care is imposed on the defendant, what are the consequences to the community and will insurance be available and affordable?