Gun firm settles in sniper lawsuit
By DAVID HENCH, Portland Press Herald Writer
A Windham gun manufacturer will pay $550,000 to families of victims of the Washington, D.C., snipers, but insists it has no responsibility for what someone does after procuring one of the company's guns.
Bushmaster Firearms Inc., which manufactured the high-powered rifle used in the 2002 killing spree, said in a statement that it is paying the settlement to avoid a protracted and expensive legal battle.
"We did not agree and would not agree to change the way we do business or make any additional demands of our customers," a company release said. "We were emphatic that Bushmaster did not commit any wrongdoings."
The Washington state gun dealer accused of selling or losing track of the Bushmaster XM-15 assault rifle agreed to pay an additional $2 million in the settlement.
Gun control advocates said the settlement holds the gun industry accountable.
"This is an important part of bringing our societal problem of gun violence under control," said William Harwood, a board member of Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence and an attorney who represented some of the victims' families in an issue related to the lawsuit.
"The beauty of our civil justice system is people are held accountable and they will, over time, have to pay for their negligence," he said. "It's unfortunate, but (Bushmaster) can continue to conduct themselves in the same way and presumably they will continue to get sued when people get injured as a result of their behavior."
John Allen Muhammad, 43, was convicted and sentenced to death for murder in one of the 10 fatal shootings in October 2002 in the Washington area. His co-conspirator, 19-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo, was tried separately, convicted of murder in a different death and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The two were linked to a total of 20 shootings in Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Washington. Prosecutors have said the three-week rampage was part of a scheme to extort $10 million from the government. Muhammad and Malvo used a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, a civilian version of the military's M-16 assault rifle.
The lawsuit alleged that at least 238 guns, including the snipers' rifle, disappeared from Bull's Eye Shooter Supply in the three years before the shooting rampage. Despite audits by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms showing Bull's Eye had dozens of missing guns, Bushmaster continued to use the shop as a dealer and provided it with as many guns as the owners wanted, the lawsuit alleged.
It's still not clear how Muhammad and Malvo, who were both legally prohibited from buying guns, obtained the Bushmaster rifle.
The settlement marks the first time a gun manufacturer has agreed to pay damages to settle claims of negligent distribution of weapons, said Jon Lowy, a lawyer with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Lowy, who helped argue the case, also said the settlement with Bull's Eye is the largest against a gun dealer. A judge will determine how to divide the settlement among two people hurt in the shootings and the families of six people who were killed.
In explaining its decision to settle, Bushmaster said half of its policy limits had already been spent on defending the legal case, and the insurance company believed defending the case would exhaust the money available for coverage.
"The balance of the insurance policy not spent on legal fees, approximately $550,000, will go to the victims' families for their grief," said the company's chairman, Richard E. Dyke.
"Bushmaster strongly believes and vigorously supports the rights of citizens to own and use firearms, and the settlement of this case in no way compromises that stand," the company said in its release. "The Brady Group's . . . attempt to eliminate gun rights of citizens has failed legislatively and will continue to fail with these frivolous lawsuits against gun manufacturers."
But with the decision costing the company's insurer $1 million, insurers could pressure Bushmaster and other gun manufacturers to make changes.
"It wouldn't be unusual at all for an underwriter to say, 'This is going to affect your premiums' or 'We want some assurance that the behavior in marketing this product will change,' " said John Paterson, a Portland trial lawyer who does product-liability work.
Bushmaster maintained it is no more responsible for how its guns are used than a car manufacturer is for drunken drivers. But Paterson said an irresponsible vendor changes the equation.
"If it could be shown that the manufacturer of the firearms, in fact, had knowledge that they had a reckless vendor, a reckless retailer, then it becomes a much more difficult proposition to defend," Paterson said.
Dyke has been a leading proponent of federal legislation to protect gun makers and sellers from lawsuits.
The most recent attempt to pass such a bill failed after amendments were added to extend the ban on assault rifles and extend background check requirements to people buying guns at shows, Harwood said.
The company sells about 50,000 rifles a year in 38 countries, and in 2002 had 100 employees and annual sales of about $36 million.
- The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
dhench@pressherald.com
