Gun Company, Owner, School Must Pay

In 2000, Barry Grunow, teacher, was shot and killed by a 13-year-old student who stole an unloaded gun and bullets from a cookie tin stashed away in a dresser drawer of a family friend. A Palm Beach County, Florida jury has awarded his widow $24 million -- but not from the murderer.

Pam Grunow sued Valor Corp. for distributing the small, inexpensive, ‘easily-concealed’ .25 Raven handgun, a type often referred to as a “Saturday Night Special.” Her lawyers accused Valor Corp. of distributing a gun that is “unsafe, defective and lacked features that would have prevented a minor from using it” (such as a trigger lock). Lawyers further asserted that the gun has no legitimate purpose because it is not used by collectors, law enforcement, the military, or for target practice, hunting or self-defense. (Such guns do, however, at about $75 each, provide affordable protection to many people unable to buy more expensive guns. -Ed.)

The jury containing six women determined that the school board must pay $10.8 million for allowing the student on campus that day, the owner of the stolen gun is to pay $12 million for not keeping the gun locked up, and the gun distributor, Valor Corp., is to pay the remaining $1.2 million. No financial liability was assigned to the student who stole the gun and pulled the trigger, although he was sentenced to 28 years in the criminal case. Grunow had earlier sued the pawn shop which sold the gun and she also won that case, with a smaller settlement.

This is the first lawsuit in the country in which a gun company has been held responsible in a murder. Grunow’s attorney, who spearheaded the state’s successful efforts to sue ‘Big Tobacco’ for $11.3 billion, said he hoped the gun case would set the same type of precedent.

(This is another case of lawyers out of control and juries without a lick of sense. The fault here lies with the student, and with his family, since he was underage -- but the family doesn’t have enough money to make it worth the lawyers’ time, so they went after bigger targets. If this student had gone to a neighbor’s house and stolen the car keys, taken the car, and run over and killed a teacher on school grounds, would the car owner be held liable? Would the car dealership and the manufacturer be held responsible? Would the school be held responsible? Of course not. Not yet, anyway! -Ed.) 

A Well-Regulated Militia

“Alas, when free citizens - the militia - are unarmed and vulnerable, it is easy for a lone gunman, bent on stealth and the application of his deadly skill, to bring a free state to its knees and enslave its people in fear. ...We need more armed citizens - citizens emboldened by their ability to defend themselves. Citizens who, instead of cowering behind a barrier as another victim is claimed, shout, ‘Sniper, there,’ and converge on the predator. We need more responsible and armed citizens, people of the stature of ordinary citizens such as Todd Beamer, who led his fellow airline passengers against armed hijackers. Citizens who rise to the challenge and quietly urge their fellow citizens: ‘Sniper, there. Let’s roll.’”

(Excerpted from a letter-to-the-editor by Emmette Boone, Washington Times, 10/24/02)

(By: Emmette Boone | 22 March 2003 | 11:00AM)