Every year thousands of people are injured and killed by firearms. If you or someone you know has been injured by a firearm, you may wonder what recourse you have. Depending upon the circumstances of the injury, you may have recourse against the manufacturer, seller, distributor, owner or purchaser of the firearm under theories of products liability and/or negligence. Consulting with an experienced products liability attorney will help you understand any claims you may have for injuries caused by a firearm.

Theories of recovery: Is it a gun or a person that hurt you?

When looking at a firearm injury, one of the first questions you may ask yourself, and one that courts will ask, is how did it happen? If the weapon involved was defective, then recovery may be possible under products liability law. If the weapon was not defective, then it is necessary to turn to the laws governing negligence for recovery.

Firearms and Defective Product Cases

A product can be defective in a number of ways. If a product is marketed with inadequate instructions or warnings as to foreseeable risks, it is defective. If a product is manufactured with a flaw, but the design and marketing of the product are fine, it is called a manufacturing defect. If a product is designed in such way that it is foreseeable that injury could result, and if the risk of injury could have been reduced by an alternative design, then a product is said to be defective in its design. When looking at alternative designs, the court will look at the costs associated with the alternative designs, whether the proposed alternative would in fact have reduced the foreseeable risks of harm associated with the product, and whether the failure to use the alternative design made the product unreasonably unsafe at the time it was manufactured. If a product is defective in the way that it is marketed, manufactured, or designed, and someone is injured as a result of that defect, then the manufacturer, distributor and/or seller of the product are usually liable, or responsible for the consequences of the defect.