Kahr Arms has settled a suit brought by the family of a shooting victim, with help from the Brady Campaign. I’m going to bet for a company the size of Kahr, this is a serious chunk of change. They had motioned to have the case dismissed under the PLCAA, but the judge never ruled on the motion because settlement talks were proceeding. I don’t think PLCAA would have preempted this kind of suit. Kahr probably realized that too, which is why they settled.
The case came about because a drug-addicted employee of Kahr pilfered a few pistols from the assembly line before they were stamped with serial numbers. Most manufacturers have security systems in place to prevent guns from walking out of the plant, but Kahr apparently did not. Because this was a negligence suit, there’s a strong argument PLCAA would not apply.
Well, I don’t know the facts of the case. If the employee had a prior criminal record, and the company did not perform a background check to determine his status in that regard then I’d have to call it the correct decision. Our gun grabby pals want to claim this as some sort of victory. Considering their previous misrepresentation of the PLCAA that is worth a few laughs. For those who weren’t paying attention back then, it is worth noting that our political opponents lied about what the PLCAA would do. Prior to its passage they claimed that it would give blanket immunity to gun manufacturers in cases such as this where it appears they were actually negligent.
Something tells me that A) Kahr might be sold soon, and B) if any of the Gun Manufacturers haven’t stepped up Internal Security, their Business Insurers will yank their Policy.
And I suspect this was probably paid for by the insurance company. Which is less concerned with the finer points of fire arms policy and more concerned with paying as little as possible.
Remember the hysterical screams when PLCAA was passed, that it gave gun manufacturers “blanket immunity” from any and all lawsuits? What of that now?
I hate to side with the Brady people, but it is Kahr’s responsibility to take every reasonable step to make sure their employees aren’t “bending off” unserialized firearms. If that is in fact what happened, they should be held accountable.
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