Malf
An attorney claims that a pistol he bought from Cabela’s became “fully automatic” at a firing range, “uncontrollably spraying 9mm bullets.”
Robert Gardner claims that the outdoor catalogue store has failed to inspect the “aged” Steyr pistol he bought, and sent a dangerous “machine gun.”
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:56 am
But, but, but Brady told me you couldn’t sue gun sellers for selling dangerous weapons anymore.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:06 am
So he admits he had possession of a fully automatic weapon without a NFA tax stamp? Does the ATF know about this guy, running around with an illegal machine gun? Cuz they have sent folks to jail for much the same thing…
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:05 am
Under the Olofson test, Cabela’s is guilty of “transferring an unregistered full-automatic weapon”. The possessor of the weapon is innocent. Remember, “there is no exception in the law for a malfunction”.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:33 am
Seems to me to be a feature, not a bug, but what do I know?
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:14 pm
^ exactly what I was thinking, Wolfwood.. š
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I suppose I’m more into pr0n than guns, because after initially reading this post, I was wondering, “How is this a play on MILF? And why is it an A instead of an I?”
Then it dawned on me. I’m so ashamed.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:02 pm
If this idjit thinks ‘aged’ inventory/guns are the reason for his full-auto escapade, my Colt Thunderer (Model of 1877) is obviously defective.
I suspect he needs an admonition from the administrative judge for bringing frivilous lawsuits and should either cut back on the caffeine or get checked out for benign essential tremor. At least, in a just world…
Regards,
Rabbit.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:06 pm
The Olofson case said if you know your gun is malfunctioning and going full auto, you don’t try to fix it, and loan it to someone else and tell them that it will malfunction and go full auto, then you are guilty of transferring a machine gun.
Cabela’s would have to have known the gun malfuntioned and shot full auto when it sold it to be guilty as Olofson was.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Ermmm …. what injury did he sustain beyond loss of the pistol’s purchase price?
If Cabelas offered to settle for the price of the gun, a sane judge would find for that amount, and stick the defendant with his own attorney fees.
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:39 pm
“…he took the weapon to Steyr Arms, which replaced its trigger bar assembly.”
Okay… uninformed speculation, but per Occam’s razor, I’d bet it had a sensitive trigger, but wasn’t truly firing auto when held down, the idiot just kept squeezing. I’ve never heard of a Steyr going full auto from a trigger bar malf, but I suppose it’s possible. If so, it’d be interesting to know what the exact malf was, purely for educational purposes, of course.
So, Steyr Arms replaced the trigger assembly, after which “Gardner, an attorney … seeks damages for negligence, consumer fraud and deceptive trade.” Scum of the earth. I’d have let it go, but at most that’s a small claims suit for travel, time and incidental expenses to get it fixed.
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:36 pm
It might be due to todays legal climate , however i am not sure that i would not do the same and sue everyone and sundry if i had a firearm malfunction and spew multiple rounds in front of witnesses ( in view of the Olofson case ). Not that i owuld think i could win , rather that i register with a court ” damages ” for a malfunctioning firearm . Honestly i dont approve of the ” tactic ” but do recognize that it would likely defeuse any such broken gun prosicution by batfe .
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Too bad that 99% of lawyers give the rest of them a bad name.