Briefly in the news
In what is seen as yet another victory for gun safety litigation, a
New Mexico Supreme Court on Tuesday denied review of a July 27 decision
by that state’s Appellate Court that Bryco Arms, a major Costa Mesa-based
handgun manufacturer, has a duty to make and sell handguns with safety
features.
This ruling upholds the Appeals Court’s decision, the first such
appellate court ruling in New Mexico, that guns without reasonable safety
mechanisms can be unreasonably dangerous and, hence, defective.
The case was brought about on behalf of Sean Smith, a 14-year-old who
was unintentionally shot and injured by one of his friends after that
friend got ahold of a Bryco J-22 pistol. The ammunition magazine was
removed from it, but the boy did not see a round hidden in its chamber
when he pulled the trigger and shot Smith.
Smith’s lawyers argued that the gun lacked vital safety features, such
as a magazine disconnect, a chamber load indicator or warnings printed on
the gun that might have prevented that shooting.
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