Jury Clears Gun Maker in Accidental Shooting

Handgun Control, Inc. Strikes out in Third Retrial of Case

OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ — An Alameda County Superior Court jury yesterday found that firearm manufacturer Beretta U.S.A. Corp. was not responsible for the tragic 1994 accidental shooting death of a 14-year-old boy. Kenzo Dix was killed when his friend played with a firearm that was left loaded and unlocked by an irresponsible parent. The jury deliberated only five hours before returning a verdict in favor of Beretta U.S.A. Corp., finding the pistol’s design did not cause the accident.

This was the third time the case had been tried. The lawsuit was filed in 1995 on behalf of the parents of Dix by lawyers from Handgun Control Inc. (since renamed as Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence). Handgun Control Inc. tried to claim Beretta was at fault for not having included a built-in lock and for not providing more warnings by having a different “loaded chamber indicator” feature than the one on the firearm. The case gained national media attention in late 1998 when a jury in the first trial found that the design of the Beretta pistol was not defective and did not cause the accident. An appellate court, however, ordered a retrial because a juror allegedly told fellow jurors he didn’t think Beretta was at fault before the jury began its deliberations. In a retrial last year the plaintiffs were again unable to convince a jury that the pistol’s design was defective and caused the accident resulting in a mistrial.

The Dix case was the first major lawsuit filed and funded by the Brady Center against a firearms manufacturer in an attempt to use litigation to force the redesign of firearms to include so-called “safety” devices. The Brady Center has filed similar suits against other manufacturers.

“The Brady Center has struck out. This jury — as two others before it — listened carefully to all the evidence and again refused to blame the product manufacturer for reckless misuse of its product,” said Lawrence G. Keane, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearm industry’s trade association.

“Unquestionably, the Brady Center has suffered a major setback in its efforts to use the courts to force its gun control agenda upon product manufacturers and their design engineers who care deeply about the safety of consumers and who design safe and reliable products,” Keane added. He noted that the number and rate of firearm accidents are at their lowest levels since record keeping began in 1903 — all while the number of firearms in private ownership has grown.

“We are sorry for the tragedy suffered by the Dix family and we hope publicity from this case will warn parents who own firearms to store them unloaded and locked if they have teenage children,” said Jeff Reh, general counsel for Beretta U.S.A. “It also bears mentioning, though, that three juries have looked at the facts of this case and not one has agreed with the plaintiffs nor with the attorneys at Handgun Control, Inc. that the design of a pistol somehow caused this accident. When a firearm owner leaves his unlocked, loaded pistol where his teenage son can find it, and when that son fails to check the firing chamber — something he knew how to do — to see if the gun is loaded, then pointed the pistol at a friend, disengaged the safety lever and then pulled the trigger, it should be obvious that human carelessness, not a pistol design, caused the accident.”

This release is also available in the Press Room section of the

http:/www.NSSF.org Web site.

SOURCE National Shooting Sports Foundation

CO: National Shooting Sports Foundation; Beretta U.S.A. Corp.; Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence; Handgun Control, Inc.

ST: California

SU: LAW

Web site: http://www.nssf.org

http://www.prnewswire.com

08/03/2004 17:37 EDT