By Ariel Zilber For Dailymail.com
Published: 11:05 EST, 26 August 2016 | Updated: 12:28 EST, 26 August 2016
An Arkansas policeman is suing a large gun manufacturer after accidentally shooting himself in the foot – literally.
According to the website Guns.com, Larry Jones, a cop from Cherry Valley, Arkansas, was injured when his pistol unexpectedly discharged as he was trying to outfit the gun with a tactical light at a shooting range in June 2013.
According to the lawsuit, Jones is seeking damages worth $75,000 from the manufacturer, Austrian-based Glock. The case is being heard by a federal court in Helena, Arkansas.
Jones is claiming that the Glock 19C pistol, which he bought in December 2000, was sold to him 'in a defective condition which rendered (it) unreasonably dangerous.'
The plaintiff is alleging that Glock's decision not to outfit the pistol with a manual safety feature led to the accident.
The manufacturer had a responsibility to give 'a reasonable and adequate warning of dangers inherent and/or reasonably foreseeable in the use' of the pistol, according to the lawsuit.
Glock is denying the allegations of the lawsuit.
This is not the first time the Austrian gunmaker is being put under the microscope for its products' lack of safeguarding measures.
Last year, Glock agreed to a financial settlement with a retired Los Angeles Police Department officer who was left paralyzed when his 3-year-old son accidentally fired his handgun while riding in the family truck.
According to MyNewsLA.com, the retired officer, Enrique Herrera Chavez, sued the company after the shooting on July 11, 2006 that rendered him a paraplegic paralyzed from the waist down.
Chavez, who admitted to forgetting the gun in the back seat when he and his son climbed into the vehicle, claimed that the Glock 21 gun and hip holster were designed without a grip safety, making it relatively easy to fire.
GLOCK 19C 'COMPENSATED' 9mm PISTOL
Traditionally, Glock has marketed itself to police departments as maker of guns with an ability to fire immediately.
Glock installed the so-called 'Safe Action System,' which the company describes as 'a fully automatic safety system consisting of three passive, independently operating, mechanical safeties, which sequentially disengage when the trigger is pulled and automatically reengage when the trigger is released.'
'In fact, the trigger energy on the Glock is so low that it was easier to pull the trigger on the Glock than on cheap, plastic toy guns ordered off the Internet,' Chavez's lawyers alleged in court papers.
The company rejected the argument, saying that Chavez had failed to follow basic LAPD guidelines that required him to disassemble the weapon so that it would not be operable.
This past March, a high-profile pro-gun activist was shot in the back by her four-year-old son after he found her pistol lying on the back seat of her truck just 24 hours after she boasted about his shooting skills online
Published: 11:05 EST, 26 August 2016 | Updated: 12:28 EST, 26 August 2016
An Arkansas policeman is suing a large gun manufacturer after accidentally shooting himself in the foot – literally.
According to the website Guns.com, Larry Jones, a cop from Cherry Valley, Arkansas, was injured when his pistol unexpectedly discharged as he was trying to outfit the gun with a tactical light at a shooting range in June 2013.
According to the lawsuit, Jones is seeking damages worth $75,000 from the manufacturer, Austrian-based Glock. The case is being heard by a federal court in Helena, Arkansas.
Jones is claiming that the Glock 19C pistol, which he bought in December 2000, was sold to him 'in a defective condition which rendered (it) unreasonably dangerous.'
The plaintiff is alleging that Glock's decision not to outfit the pistol with a manual safety feature led to the accident.
The manufacturer had a responsibility to give 'a reasonable and adequate warning of dangers inherent and/or reasonably foreseeable in the use' of the pistol, according to the lawsuit.
Glock is denying the allegations of the lawsuit.
This is not the first time the Austrian gunmaker is being put under the microscope for its products' lack of safeguarding measures.
Last year, Glock agreed to a financial settlement with a retired Los Angeles Police Department officer who was left paralyzed when his 3-year-old son accidentally fired his handgun while riding in the family truck.
According to MyNewsLA.com, the retired officer, Enrique Herrera Chavez, sued the company after the shooting on July 11, 2006 that rendered him a paraplegic paralyzed from the waist down.
Chavez, who admitted to forgetting the gun in the back seat when he and his son climbed into the vehicle, claimed that the Glock 21 gun and hip holster were designed without a grip safety, making it relatively easy to fire.
GLOCK 19C 'COMPENSATED' 9mm PISTOL
Traditionally, Glock has marketed itself to police departments as maker of guns with an ability to fire immediately.
Glock installed the so-called 'Safe Action System,' which the company describes as 'a fully automatic safety system consisting of three passive, independently operating, mechanical safeties, which sequentially disengage when the trigger is pulled and automatically reengage when the trigger is released.'
'In fact, the trigger energy on the Glock is so low that it was easier to pull the trigger on the Glock than on cheap, plastic toy guns ordered off the Internet,' Chavez's lawyers alleged in court papers.
The company rejected the argument, saying that Chavez had failed to follow basic LAPD guidelines that required him to disassemble the weapon so that it would not be operable.
This past March, a high-profile pro-gun activist was shot in the back by her four-year-old son after he found her pistol lying on the back seat of her truck just 24 hours after she boasted about his shooting skills online
Comment