19 Yr. old killed... Gun is at fault (long)

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Riverside sues gun maker in Miller slaying
Lorcin, the Mira Loma manufacturer, failed to educate pistol users, the suit claims.

By Lisa O'Neill Hill and John Welch
The Press-Enterprise
RIVERSIDE


A gun manufacturer shares responsibility for Tyisha Miller's death for selling the weapon she had on her lap when she was fatally shot by police, the city of Riverside claims in a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Lorcin Engineering Co. should be named as a co-defendant along with the city in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Tyisha Miller's family, said Skip Miller, the city's attorney.

The company is responsible for negligently marketing and distributing the .38-caliber gun Miller had, the lawsuit contends. Lorcin failed to educate or train users regarding the safe and correct way to use guns, the suit states.

"We think they bear significant responsibility," said Skip Miller, who is not related to Tyisha Miller.

No one associated with Lorcin was available for comment Thursday.

Supporters of Tyisha Miller said the city is trying to shift blame from the officers who shot her to the gun manufacturer.

"I think what is unfortunate is that they are using a legitimate concern, that being gun control, to serve an illegitimate purpose, which is damage control," said Rev. Jesse Wilson, chairman of the Tyisha Miller Steering Committee.

The city maintains that the shooting was preventable.

"This whole thing would not have occurred but for the presence of this loaded Lorcin L380," Skip Miller said. "That gun should never have been there.

"The city is not trying to pass the buck. The city has stepped up and taken full responsibility . . . This whole thing was not entirely caused by the city."

Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge said city officials are following Skip Miller's advice in taking the legal action.

"You try to have the best defense of a case you can and Skip Miller is one of the best in the business and I support his inclusion of the gun manufacturer," Loveridge said.

Lorcin, which has been criticized for making guns that sell for less than $100 each, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in October 1996 with $1.08 million in assets and about $4.2 million in liabilities. Skip Miller said Thursday the company is not bankrupt.

Bruce Jennings, owner of B.L. Jennings, a gun distribution company, said he faxed a copy of the lawsuit to James Waldorf, a former Lorcin president and chief executive officer. Waldorf did not want to comment on the lawsuit, Jennings said.

The company and several other gun manufacturers have been sued in the past over allegations that they marketed handguns irresponsibly.

James Waldorf has said that he was forced to close the Mira Loma plant of Lorcin Engineering in 1999 because of the legal claims. The lawsuits facing the company were intended to drive up the cost of all guns, he said.

Last month he said the company beat back the claims by governments against his company.

"Every single claim against Lorcin was dismissed, but at a very expensive cost of $100,000 here, $100,000 there," in legal fees, Waldorf said.

Waldorf has since started a company in Nevada.

Riverside joins cities across the country that have filed lawsuits against gun makers. Chicago, New Orleans and Newark, N.J. are among the municipalities that have taken legal action to recover costs associated with gun violence.

"This is nothing new, nothing different," Jennings said. "It's exactly the same allegations of the other 30 lawsuits brought on by cities against gun manufacturers the past two years that have cost the firearms industry tens of millions of dollars, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, in attorney fees."

Thursday's action is the most recent legal maneuvering in connection with Miller's death and is part of the city's defense against a wrongful-death lawsuit by Miller's family. Along with the city, two of the officers who shot Miller and their supervisor are named as plantiffs in the suit against Lorcin.

Miller, 19, was fatally shot by four white Riverside police officers as she sat inside a locked, idling car at a Riverside gas station on Dec. 28, 1998. Her friends had called 911 after Miller appeared to be unresponsive and in need of medical attention.

Officers said they shot the black Rubidoux woman in self-defense after she reached for the gun on her lap. They were fired from the Police Department for the tactics they used in the shooting.

Miller did not fire the gun, and investigators later determined that it was inoperable.

By failing to educate users, "Lorcin proximately caused any and all harm sustained by Miller and her parents resulting from her tragic death," the document states.

Lorcin should have known that failure to educate users could subject them to deadly force resulting in injury or death at the hands of police officers or others.

Staff writers John Welsh and David Danelski contributed to this report.

Published 4/7/2000
 
so if i find porn on the web can i sue the manufacturer of my modem for failing to educate me about the dangers associated with their product?

chainsaw manufacturers are next

dZ
 
Oh yes, once again blame everybody but the people involved. Have they included the manufacturer of the car she was in. They should be held liable because she was in their locked in and they should warn people that if you lock yourself in your car you could be shot by police! Oh my God the tragedy that this car has caused, they should all be banned! We can ride bicycles for transportation. I'm going to sue Gillette caus ethey didn't tell me the razor was sharp enough to cut my face :rolleyes: I tnever ceases to amaze me what these lawyers will do or say. :confused:

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Until the antis put a sign in their front yard that says they don't own guns, they are riding on the shirt-tail of the safety that we provide by owning them.
 
This is a serious logic-jump. Hopefully a judge will see through this nonsense, but I'm not holding my breath.

What would the warning read?

"If confronted by law enforcement, do not reach for this gun."

What a crock.
 
The last time I bought a car, the dealer didn't check to see if I had a license or if I knew how to drive or if I knew the rules of the road as I had just moved from another state where some of the laws are different.
 
"Miller did not fire the gun, and investigators later determined that it was inoperable."

Sounds to me like they had their ultimate "smart gun." Where's the complaint?

Dick
 
Colombe, you beat me to that thought. We should post this for Radfem to see!

For those of you who don't know, on the boards at http://www.msmagazine.com we've been having some spirited discussions about guns. One of the regulars there, who calls herself Radfem, is very active in the case in point. She claims that the police involved in the shooting were allowed to "go for a ride" together in a car with a sergeant before being interviewed, that they were witnessed congratulating and high-fiving each other, and that their stories changed. Apparently the first story, after the car ride, was that Miller fired her gun at them. When the city's ballistics tests revealed that the gun is broken and will not fire, the story was changed to say that she pointed the gun at them. According to Radfem, they don't even claim that now, only that she reached for it. Now, I might have bought it if they'd said she reached for the gun, but not several changes to the story.

There are other interesting points here. Apparently, the cops' idea of banding together against the charges was to shave their heads. Protesters were arrested. And thus far, none of the cops have even been charged.
I urge you to go to www.msmagazine.com and check out the politics board, and from there to, I believe, the "Al Sharpton" thread. Interesting reading. This is the act of a city that will apparently do whatever necessary to deny there's any problem at all!
 
BTW, what exactly do they allege that Lorcin was supposed to teach Miller? Not to sit in a car with a gun in your lap while the police are asking you to get out?
Does Makita have to teach its customers that if the nice policeman tells you to drop your sawzall you should do it or he'll shoot you?
Good God!
 
Can someone find out whether Miller purchased the gun from a Calif dealer? If so, the state requires purchasers to take a firearm safety course (hunter safety, police academy, military training) or a special course designed by the Dept. of Justice. Gee, shouldn't the state bear some responsiblity if their course didn't teach Miller don't reach for a gun in the presence of a cop?
 
Well, this is one of the most cynical moves yet, eh?

We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. As a matter of fact, after reading stories like this, I sometimes wonder if we're still on planet Earth ... ;)

Regards from AZ
 
This girl's mother was on talk radio a while back complaining about her daughters murder . Several questions come to mind . Who raised the girl that was DRUNK underage ? Who raised the girl that was whacked on ILLEGAL DRUGS ? Who raised the girl that was in possesion of a hand gun ? " Oh , Mommy . Theres a man talking about you on the internet ."

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TomDeCarver SASS AMERICAN LEGION NRA
 
Man when will people take responsibilities for THEIR actions and not blame it on the TOOLS used to carry out those actions. The madness thickens every day. Im getting sick of it! Hell, I dont smoke..but I want to be compensated now should I decide to possibly start smoking and possibly get sick from it.
 
A few years ago this type of story would have really surprised me and I would have had a whole bunch of things to say.

Unfortunately, now I shrug it off as another news story and don't really find it that unusual. It is sad, but I just can't think of a reply worth a damn. The downward slope seems to be turning into a cliff...
 
Paratrooper, in his follow up post states that Tyisha Miller was both drunk and stoned on illegal drugs ,controled substances.

The new article itself mentions that Tyisha Miller's friends stated that she was unresponsive and seemed to be in need of medical assistance.

What ammount of firearms safety training is necessary to make a reasonable difference in the actions of a unresponsive and medically impaired person?

The answer, I believe, is that no amount of firearms safety training could have or would have made any difference in the actions of Tyisha Miller in her unresponsive and in need of medical assistance type of condition.

Skip Miller is mistaken in blaming and suing Loricin Enguneering Co. Inc.

Tyisha Miller was in a sickened condition from being both drunk from alchol and under the influence of controled substances, illegal drugs, stoned out of her mind, in other words.


Under these conditions , when a person has no judgement whatsoever, let alone good mature adult judgement, no amount of safety training would have made any difference to a
higher function impared mind incapable of coherrent thought.

Tyisha Miller was directly responsible
for using drugs and mixing the drugs with alchol and thus placing herself in the sorrowfull condition that lead to her tragic death.

As I have said, no amount of firearms safety training could have pierced through that drug and alchol induced fog HOWEVER the police officers on the sciene were sober and in possession of all their facilties and were safety trained with firearms and capable of extercising good mature adult judgement.

In my opinion, it was the police officers who were responsible for lack of judgement
and the city of Riverside for not properly training their police to respond to this situation in the correct non lethal maner.

In my opinion, Loricin Engineering has a good case and good grounds for defense and a counter suit against the town of Riverside to recover all reasonable court costs.



[This message has been edited by ernest2 (edited April 23, 2000).]
 
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