Kahr Arms to Pay $600K in Death Lawsuit

[bulbvivid]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-07-26-gun-maker-lawsuit_n.htm

So a criminal employee steals a gun and trades it for coke. Coke guy trades it for heroin. Heroin guys shoots someone. So now Kahr has to pay.

If Kahr is responsible, then every other manufacturer whose wares are used in crimes is responsible for said crime as well, right? Well, that is if they "operate without regard for public safety."

Geez. . . .

[Suwannee Tim]

Firearms manufacturers should do background checks on prospective employees, that's just common sense. I'll bet they do them now.

[The Cat]

Horse shit, pure and simple.

[Suwannee Tim]

In today's litigious environment, if you don't cover your ass, your ass is going to get burnt. Sooner or later. They should have know.

[Kchen986]

Yea, as much as I strongly dislike the Brady Group...

This was a case of negligent hiring/negligent entrustment. A firearm company should know better than to hire a person with a bad criminal record and drug problem.

[ReaperAZ]

Firearms manufacturers should do background checks on prospective employees, that's just common sense. I'll bet they do them now.

My question is, do firearms manufacturers do background checks? It only seems logical that they would. Maybe some do such a thing but if Kahr had done so they wouldn't be in this situation.

[Heavy Metal]

The moral of the story is obvious: "Don't try and operate a business in Mass, operate in a less litigous state!"

[montanadave]

The moral of the story is obvious: "Don't try and operate a business in Mass, operate in a less litigous state!"

Your comment piqued my curiosity regarding Kahr Arms locating in Massachusetts. Turns out the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's son had a hard-on for shooting pistols and talked his old man into buying Auto-Ordnance Corp. (which manufactured, among other things, the Thompson machine gun-- although apparently not the original). With this as the manufacturing base, Kahr Arms was born. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahr_Arms)

Moonies making pistols! Who'd a thunk it?

I'm guessing Kahr Arms settled because the Unification Church didn't want the publicity. Additionally, there were deeper pockets to be found further up the food chain and they wanted to cut bait ASAP.

[Moose-Knuckle]

Why don't they sue the Cartel who shipped the dope here?

[Suwannee Tim]

'Cause they are judgement proof Mr. Knuckle. Besides, who you gonna serve process on? You figure out the answers to those two questions and you can be the richest man in the world.

[Jer]

Look for Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda & Dodge to go out of business shortly if this is the precedent.

[Moose-Knuckle]

'Cause they are judgement proof Mr. Knuckle. Besides, who you gonna serve process on? You figure out the answers to those two questions and you can be the richest man in the world.

It's called sarcasm. My attempt at least.

[Suwannee Tim]

I knew that.:)

[maximus83]

Yes Kahr fouled up by not screening this guy carefully enough when they hired him. Still, it's hard to avoid thinking that this is mostly about anti-2A opportunism and the attempt to further hinder and restrict firearms manufacturers. Imagine this scenario: somebody who works at Ford steals a car and sells it to a dealer for drugs. The dealer sells it to another guy, who then turns around and runs somebody down, killing them.

I'm not a lawyer, but with such a convoluted chain of possession on the vehicle (which is exactly the scenario that occurred with this Kahr pistol), it seems unlikely that a jury would hold Ford liable for the wrongful death.

[An Undocumented Worker]

Look for Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda & Dodge to go out of business shortly if this is the precedent.

There is no legal precedent. The lawsuit never made it to court. Kahr settled to prevent this from going to court, for a multitude of reasons I"m sure. One of those reasons may very well be to prevent a legal precedent from actually being made if they lost the case.

[Armati]

In any business, there is a gang of 'slip-and-fall' lawyers lurking in the woods. Kahr should have been quite a bit smarter about this - employee background checks, drug testing, credit checks, and searches going in and coming out of the factory floor. If you work in the diamond or gold business this is par for course. The military won't put in charge of an arms room/armory if you can't meet the above criteria.

[Jer]

There is no legal precedent. The lawsuit never made it to court. Kahr settled to prevent this from going to court, for a multitude of reasons I"m sure. One of those reasons may very well be to prevent a legal precedent from actually being made if they lost the case.

Your statement appears to be flawed. You say that there's no precedent against the auto manufacturers as a reason it wouldn't happen then in the same statement agree there is also no precedent in Kahr's case but they still settled. Que?

[ForTehNguyen]

Kahr was clearly negligent in this case because they failed to do a background check on that employee.

[An Undocumented Worker]

Your statement appears to be flawed. You say that there's no precedent against the auto manufacturers as a reason it wouldn't happen then in the same statement agree there is also no precedent in Kahr's case but they still settled. Que?

There is no legally binding precedent set forth that would affect any other party. This is because they settled instead of going to trial.