LF: Gun maker pays out $600,000 in biggest settlement ever to shooting victims

Title: Gun maker pays out $600,000 in biggest settlement ever to shooting victims
Source: Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... ttlement-shooting-victims.html
Published: Jul 27, 2011
Author: Daily Mail Reporter
Post Date: 2011-07-27 08:37:40 by Sebastian
Keywords: None
Views: 2545
Comments: 2

A U.S. gun maker has agreed to pay nearly $600,000 to the families of victims of shootings involving a gun stolen from the company.

Father-of-two Danny Guzman, 26, was shot dead outside a Worcester, Massachusetts, nightclub in 1999. Armando Maisonet was wounded in the same shooting.

In a 2002 wrongful death suit against Worcerster-based Kahr Arms, Mr Guzman's family alleged that the gun was stolen and later sold by a Kahr employee with a criminal record.

Gun control: In this 2002 file photo, attorney Hector Pineiro, right, holds a photograph of a Kahr Arms' handgun during a news conference in Worcester, Massachusetts

Gun control: In this 2002 file photo, attorney Hector Pineiro, right, holds a photograph of a Kahr Arms gun during a news conference in Massachusetts

The $600,000 settlement on behalf of the victims is the largest ever against a gun maker for irresponsible conduct leading to criminal gun violence.

Mr Guzman's relatives said in their lawsuit that Kahr should have done employee background checks and used metal detectors to prevent guns from being smuggled out of its factory.

The announcement comes after a racism-inspired killing spree in Norway last week left at least 76 people dead.

Dennis Henigan, president of the Brady Centre To Prevent Gun Violence, a national gun-control group, said: 'We have had a number of shocking reminders of the killing power of firearms.

'That death toll (in Norway) from gun violence on a single day was regarded as a historic event, but that was less than occurs in our country on a single day.'

Mr Guzman was shot and killed on in front of a Worcester nightclub on December 24, 1999.

'That death toll (in Norway) from gun violence on a single day was regarded as a historic event, but that was less than occurs in our country on a single day'

Dennis Henigan, president of the The Brady Centre To Prevent Gun Violence

Six days later, police discovered a 9mm Kahr Arms handgun behind an apartment building near where Guzman was shot.

The lawsuit alleged that Kahr employee Mark Cronin 52; who had a drug problem and a criminal record 52; stole the gun before it had a serial number stamped on it and sold it to Robert Jachimczyk for a gram of cocaine.

The man charged in the shooting, Edwin Novas, then bought the gun from Jachimczyk for some heroin, according to the lawsuit.

Cronin pleaded guilty to the gun theft and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Novas was never caught. He is still listed on the Worcester Police Department's website as being wanted in the unresolved killing.

Lawyers for Mr Guzman's family said he was not the intended target of the shooting.

The complaint charged that a 'lack of theft prevention measures or employee background checks' and 'careless inventory tracking,' amounted to 'gross negligence/negligent hiring and supervision' and wrongful death.

It also said that Worcester police Capt. Paul F. Campbell said Kahr's record keeping was so 'shoddy' that weapons could be removed without detection.

Right to bear arms: Guns can easily be purchased in the U.S.

Gun glamour: The home page of the Kahr Arms website features a model in a cocktail dress clutching a 9mm handgun with the slogan 'Thin is sexy'

The Brady Centre said the largest settlement involving a firearms maker in the past was a half-million dollar settlement on behalf of the families of several victims of the Washington, D.C. area snipers in 2004.

The Centre's Legal Action Project is attempting to implement a gun control legal strategy parallel to legislative reform, which is often thwarted by powerful lobbying interests like the National Rifle Association.

'The central rationale ... is to encourage gun companies to factor in the human cost,' Mr Henigan said. The NRA did not have an immediate comment on the Brady Centre announcement.

Records indicate that in five years some 50 firearms have disappeared from Kahr Arms plant, the Brady Centre said.

Kahr Arms is an 'award-winning manufacturer of defensive handguns,' according to its website, whose home page pictures a woman in a cocktail dress holding a slender handgun with the words 'Thin is sexy.'

The chief executive of Kahr Arms is Kook Jin Moon, a son of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, who founded the Unification Church, also known as the Moonies.

This is equivalent to getting beat up in a street fight. Then suing the doctor that delivered they guy who hit you with his fists.