Fatal flaw in the Remington 700?

B

BAB

New member
This is off the CNN website, but since it came through my Hotmail account, I don't have a direct link. If anyone can provide one, I'd appreciate it.

I don't own a Remington 700, nor have I ever used one. Any 700 owners or anyone else want to comment on this article?

While I'm not dismissing the tragedy involved here, it was my observation from the article that the mother likely was violating at least one fundamental rule of gun safety: never point a firearm at something you do not intend to destroy. It sounds like the boy was behind a trailer, so she may not have known he was there, but it was still her responsibility to know everything in the path of a potentially fired bullet, visible or not. That's the reason we have those fundamental and all-important safety rules. It is always the gun-handler's responsibility to know and follow the rules to the extent that no one will be hurt no matter what the gun does (barring, perhaps, an explosion in someone's hands or something). That being said, if there IS a flaw in the design of the 700s, Remington needs to address it QUICK. Even states that prohibit lawsuits against the firearms industry leave open as a reason to sue inherent defects in the firearms themselves that lead to harm.


*******************************************************

CNN Today
Tragic Death of Montana Boy Involving Remington Model 700 Rifle Alters Perceptions of Gun Safety Regulation
Aired January 23, 2001 - 4:34 p.m. ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JOIE CHEN, CNN ANCHOR: Another story of parents, love and loss: Weapons-rights advocates have long maintained it is not guns which kill people, but people who kill people. The death of a 9-year-old Montana boy raises a challenge to that assertion, at least in the case of one very popular weapon. It is also a gripping story of family tragedy, a family that now issues a desperate warning to other gun- owners.

Our in-depth look at the issue from CNN's Aram Roston.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARAM ROSTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's not a day that passes when Barbara Barber doesn't think about her son, Gus.

BARBARA BARBER, GUS' MOTHER: Losing a child really makes you prioritize your life, what's really important.

ROSTON: Every day, she wonders about life the rifle that went off in her hands and killed him.

B. BARBER: When you're either loading a gun or unloading a gun, or taking it off safety, there's absolutely no expectation for it to go off. And there shouldn't be.

ROSTON: The rifle was a Remington Model 700. With more than four million sold, it is the most popular rifle in America. Barbara Barber says she had no idea it might have a fatal flaw. Gus lived a life most boys only dream of. He was a star baseball player and a champion in the children's rodeo circuit. And he was being raised in the Montana outdoors tradition: hiking, fishing and hunting.

His father, Rich Barber:

RICH BARBER, GUS' FATHER: Hunting here to us is what Christmas might be to some folks someplace else.

ROSTON: In October last year, the Barbers, with 9-year-old Gus and their 13-year-old daughter Chanda, went on their annual hunting trip in Montana's Gravelly Mountain Range.

B. BARBER: It was a beautiful day out. And we were all in T- shirts. The kids went on up ahead. And they were singing silly songs. ROSTON: When they got back to the camp, Barbara took the Remington Model 700 to unload.

B. BARBER: I walked over to the horse trailer, like I've done 100 times in the past. And I went to pull the bolt up. And it wouldn't come up. So I took the safety off and it went off just that easy.

ROSTON (on camera): You didn't put your hand on the trigger?

B. BARBER: No. I had an open hand.

ROSTON (voice-over): Chanda was just a few feet from Gus when it happened.

CHANDA BARBER, GUS' SISTER: I walked over here. And Gus was on the ground. When a gunshot goes off, he pretends he's been shot. And I said, "Gus, why don't you get up? Quit faking" and stuff. My parents were all panicking: "Where's Gus? Where's Gus?"

R. BARBER: I rolled Gus over, saw the entrance wound in his abdomen. And Chanda lost it, was hysterical. And Barb was just, "Rich, I didn't have my hand on the trigger."

ROSTON: The bullet had gone through the trailer and hit Gus. They quickly put him in their truck and rushed to the hospital. There was little the doctor could do. Moments after arriving, Gus died.

R. BARBER: I lost everything.

ROSTON: For the first few days, Barbara and Rich didn't know how it could have happened. Barbara insisted then and still believes she didn't touch the trigger.

TOM BUTTERS, MECHANICAL ENGINEER: It essentially booby-traps the individual.

ROSTON: Tom Butters, a gun enthusiast and mechanical engineer from Texas, has been trying to warn people about the Model 700 for more than 20 years.

BUTTERS: The problem is, is that, as he pushes the safety to the fire position, the rifle discharges. The firing pin falls without him intending it to.

ROSTON (on camera): You mean that acts as a trigger?

BUTTERS: That's exactly what it does. If you have it on safe, you can't open the bolt. You push the safe to the fire position. It goes bang.

ROSTON (voice-over): Since 1962, when the Model 700 was first marketed, court documents show Remington Arms Company has received more than 1,000 complaints about accidental firings when the safety was disengaged. In 1989, Mike Collins (ph), a hunter from Texas, shot his left foot when he hit the safety of his Remington Model 700. His foot had to be amputated. Mike Lewy (ph) was unloading his 700 when it misfired. His mother was wounded as she slept a floor above.

(on camera): Did they tell the public these guns may go off?

BUTTERS: They have not done anything that would suggest to the public that there was a potential for an inadvertent discharge.

ROSTON: Did you wonder why you hadn't been told?

B. BARBERS: Nobody was told. Unless you've had it happen to you, that's the way you learn.

ROSTON (voice-over): This 1979 Remington Arms memo estimates that "1 percent of the pre-1975 Model 700 family of guns out in the field, which number about 2,000,000, can be tricked." That means, in 1979, the company believed 20,000 high-powered rifles were susceptible to this same misfire experienced by the Barbers.

B. BARBERS: A parent should never outlive their child -- never.

ROSTON: But according to the same memo, the company's safety subcommittee decided against a recall. Instead, the memo recommended a public campaign for proper gun handling.

(on camera): Could they have saved lives if they had issue a recall?

BUTTERS: I think so.

ROSTON (voice-over): In the early 1970s, when Congress created the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the agency was forbidden to regulate guns or ammunition. Jon Vernick is a gun-policy researcher at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

JON VERNICK, JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHER: Virtually every other product other than guns is subject to safety standards: home appliances, toys, recreational equipment, boats. If there's a defect, they're subject to mandatory recalls.

ROSTON: The NRA and many gun-rights advocates say safety regulations and mandatory recalls could be the wedge leading to a total ban on guns.

BUTTERS: Good morning, Jack.

ROSTON: Even Tom Butters says litigation, not government regulation is the way to fix the problem.

BUTTERS: If the government could tell a factory or a designer how he had to do what he wanted to do in regard to a firearm, that's tantamount to giving them the right to destroy that particular industry or that particular manufacturer.

R. BARBER: This is not an anti-gun issue. I don't believe guns should be taken away from people. People weren't warned. The rifles were not recalled. And I am a statistic. ROSTON: Officials at Remington declined an on-camera interview with CNN. They pointed to safety recommendations on their Web site specifically aimed at users of the Model 700. In a letter, the company stated: "The popularity of the Model 700 is attested to by the fact that four million of these rifles have been sold to hunters, target-shooters and law enforcement agencies across the United States. When used following the rules of safe gun handling, including proper maintenance, and not inappropriately altered, the Remington Model 700 is a safe rifle."

Tom Butters examined the gun which killed Gus Barber. Butters says it met Remington specs in every way. In 1982, Remington says the company improved the design of the gun. But Tom Butters says, while the design change helped, the basic problem of misfires remains.

R. BARBER: I made a promise to my son that it stops here and now. Maybe it's time that someone gets involved and watches product- safety liability in...

B. BARBER: The firearms.

R. BARBER: ... firearms.

ROSTON (on camera): Did you -- either of you ever think you'd be saying that?

B. BARBER: No.

R. BARBER: No.

ROSTON (voice-over): Aram Roston, CNN, Manhattan, Montana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)
 
I've had rifles malfunction and slam fire. Seen it with others also. They must be expected to do so. It's an unnecessary tragedy, I agree. However:
RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY
Click to expand...
Rich
 
Didn't Remington have a recall for just this problem a couple of years ago?

Or was it another manufacturer?

It could also have been someone messing with the trigger adjustment screws and not knowing what he/she was doing...
 
I have a Remington 700 I've used for over 30 years. When I was about 16, I read an article about adjusting the trigger in an outdoor magazine (pre-litigation era), and thought I'd give it a try. I cranked the weight down to a about a half pound and took it out for some target shooting. I loaded up, and with the rifle pointed safely downrange, flipped the safety off. BOOM!

Scared the hell out of me. When I quit shaking and figured out what had happened, I grabbed the screwdriver, returned the adjustments to the factory setting, and retired as an amateur triggersmith right then and there. The gun has not repeated this problem in the past 30 years.

I don't know if any such tinkering was involved in other reported problems, but I do know where the blame lies for my mishap.

CoyDog
 
IF someone badly adjusted the trigger on the rifle, it obviously is not the rifle's fault.

Sorry about the boy. Horsewhip the "gunsmith". ;)

And, as noted, have a long talk with the shooter.

[Edited by Dennis on 01-28-2001 at 11:24 PM]
 
This Remington crap comes out about every ten years, resurrected by some media idiot needing a human interest/gun tragedy story.

Look deeper into each of the events which resulted in nonlawsuits( tell ya anything????) and you'll see faulty operators, not faulty Remingtons.

It must always be someone else's fault, never ours. Clinton is out folks, responsibility is in. Learn it, live it, love it.

Can't we put this horse hockey in the stable and leave it there???
 
First let me say that I like and use a Remington 700RS in 30-06. Its my main, and currently only, big game hunting rifle. I like it so much that I wish I could find another used 700 in .223 caliber.

I believe there is more to the subject than it being some type of urban legend. I don't remember how many years ago, but have heard from reliable sources that Remington does have, or at least had, a problem just as described with the 700 line.

There's no doubt that Remington wouldn't want to announce the problem. Just as Glock keeps denying that the kB's their guns have has anything to do with the manufacturing process or design. I guess that from a strictly monetary/liability standpoint its less expensive to pay off a few hundred thousand here and there than to recall a whole line of guns. Specially when millions of them might be involved.

I do believe that *if* in fact this problem does exist, it isn't very common. Just as Glock kB's are rare.

So for me, I'll observe all safety rules. Inspect my guns regularly. Use only good quality ammunition and keep on shooting my 700 and G23 without any worries.

BTW - If anyone is scared by the idea that their Rem 700 (.223) might be unsafe I'll purchase it from them. Of course I'll expect one heck of a discount ;-)

Rob
 
"... But Tom Butters says, while the design change helped, the basic problem of misfires remains."

Misfire ... ???

I agree, Rich. Rule II ... How about some muzzle control?
 
The M700 is the basis for the Marine Corps M40 series sniper rifle. I believe the Marines are on the M40A4 at this time, and I haven't heard that they're having a problem with the weapons.

LawDog
 
Here's another 700 article:

11/05/2000
Remington rifle involved in growing number of accidents
By KATHLEEN O'TOOLE Chronicle Staff Writer

Pete Noreen was watching the television news two weeks ago when he saw a
story about a 9-year-old boy, Gus Barber, who had been shot and killed in a
hunting accident in Madison County. The boy's mother was unloading her
hunting rifle and the gun accidentally discharged.

The tragedy would sicken anyone, but Noreen, a former gunsmith, now a
Belgrade machinist, felt a shiver roll down his spine.

"I had the strangest feeling that I knew what happened and how it happened,"
he said. "I had a feeling in my guts that it was the same type of gun."

The gun is a Remington Model 700 series rifle. It's the same gun that went
off in his daughter's hands while hunting in the Little Belt Mountains near
Utica, three years ago. It's the same gun that Bob Ekey, another Bozeman
hunter, had accidentally discharge on two separate occasions in two
consecutive years. It's the same gun that has been the center of more than
80 lawsuits around the country taken up against Remington Arms Co. in the
past 20 years.

One of those lawsuits ended in 1994 with Remington paying $17 million
to a Texas man whose Remington Model 700 bolt-action rifle accidentally
discharged and shot him in the foot. The court earmarked $15 million of
that order as punitive damages.

As it turned out Noreen was right. The gun that discharged unexpectedly and
killed Gus Barber in the Gravelly Range on a family hunting trip Oct. 23 was
a Remington Model 700 bolt-action rifle.

It isn't only the number of incidents that raises eyebrows, but also the
similarity of the incidents.

Ekey said in his first incident in 1988 with the Remington Model 700, he
returned from hunting with a buddy and was in the parking lot unloading the
gun. He released the safety and opened the bolt when the gun, which was
pointing at the ground, discharged. He said his finger was not near the
trigger.

Barbara Barber, Gus Barber's mother, said Wednesday that was exactly what
happened to her as she unloaded the gun. But this time the barrel of her gun
was pointing at the open door of a horse trailer. The bullet went through
the trailer's wall and hit her son in the abdomen as he stood on the other
side.

"My finger wasn't on the trigger," she said.

Even with mounting evidence many people like Jacob Martin, owner of Valley
Pawn in Bozeman, don't believe there is a problem with the gun and say
accidents happen because people aren't following basic hunter safety rules.

"It's the most reliable gun out there," he said. "I have a difficult time
believing this."

But Ekey said hunters have a right to expect more from the Remington Model
700, one of the most popular rifles on the market with more than 3 million
sold since it went on the market in 1962.

"You should handle a gun as if it will go off, but you should have a
reasonable expectation that it won't," Ekey said Thursday. "Guns are
inherently dangerous, but we as hunters don't have to accept a situation
that is more dangerous than it has to be." .......

Not including Gus Barber's fatal accident, at least three other injury or
death accidents in Montana have been associated with the Remington rifles.

The most recent was this past Friday, when a Bozeman hunter, Justin Sabol,
was unloading his Remington Model 700 .22-250-caliber rifle when it
discharged. The bullet first hit the floor of his truck, then ricocheted and
hit Robert Nase, 53, of Belgrade, in the forearm, causing a minor injury.

In November 1988, Brock Aleksich of Butte was operating the safety of a
Remington Model 700 rifle when the gun discharged and shot his brother,
Brent Aleksich, in both legs. The teen suffered severe and permanent
physical injuries, according to court documents on the case. The case
settled out of court, but parties were not allowed to discuss terms of the
settlement.

In June 1993, 11-year-old Hank Blacksmith was at the home of his friend,
Jesse Coonfare, in Billings. Coonfare got his father's Remington Model 600
Mohawk rifle, a gun that Remington had recalled in 1978. The gun slipped
from Coonfare's hands and accidentally discharged, shooting and killing
Blacksmith. That case also settled out of court in 1996 and the terms of the
settlement were also sealed and confidential.

Remington Arms Co. denies that its Model 700 bolt-action rifle, which
includes 19 different variations, is more dangerous than any other weapon,
or faulty in its design.

According to a 1994 Business Week magazine story, a company spokesman said
"We have believed in the past and continue to believe today that the Model
700 is one of the finest bolt-action rifles manufactured. We see the product
as a safe and reliable sporting firearm."

Several attempts to reach a spokesperson for Remington for this article were
unsuccessful. The Chronicle did reach Ron Bristle, chief operating officer
for Remington, on Friday, but he said he could not speak for the company and
that someone would return the call. No one did.

Remington has admitted problems with another rifle, the Model 600, sister to
the Model 700. After settling a case in 1978 with a man who became paralyzed
when the Model 600 suddenly discharged, Remington recalled that model. The
company calculated that 50 percent of the 200,000 Model 600 rifles it had
sold would fail, according to minutes of a January 1979 meeting of the
Remington Arms Product Safety Subcommittee.

The Model 600 and Model 700 rifles use the Walker fire control system and
evidenced the same discharge problems leading to the same kind of injuries,
the subcommittee minutes note. But Remington had sold 10 times as many Model
700 rifles and a recall would be much more costly to the company.

Remington had 1979 tests that showed only 1 percent of the Model 700 guns
could be "tricked" into a discharging inadvertently and argued that a recall
"would have to gather 2 million guns just to find 20,000 that are
susceptible to this condition," according to the subcommittee's minutes.

But Attorney Richard C. Miller, a Missouri attorney who has represented more
than 40 cases against Remington regarding accidental discharges of the Model
700, believes the real reasons Remington didn't order a recall because it
would be too costly and hurt the company's future sales.

"Every one can do it. There's not one out there that's safe," Miller said
Friday.

The cause is an inherent problem with the Walker system in Remington's
bolt-action rifle, something the company knew about from the original patent
in 1950. The patent application states, "We have found it to be essential
that the safety (mechanism) be so arranged that an inadvertent operation of
the trigger while the safety is in the "Safe" position will not condition
the arm to fire upon release of the safety."

Miller explained there are two problems with the Model 700 rifle.

The first is a problem where the internal components of the system don't
always return the sear-block safety, which blocks the firing pin from
reaching the primer. When that happens, the only thing keeping the gun from
firing is the safety.

The second problem exists in guns made prior to 1982, when the rifle was
made with a bolt lock. The lock wouldn't allow the bolt to be opened or
closed while the safety was on. Accidents with these guns most often
happen in camp, or parking lots, when people are loading and unloading
the weapon, Miller said.

In 1982, Remington started making its bolt action rifles without the bolt
lock and the number of complaints declined, Miller said. Accidental
discharges with these newer rifles often happen when people turn off the
safety, usually when they are ready to shoot.

"I want to give Remington credit where credit is due," Miller said. "That
did reduce the likelihood of a malfunction. But Remington would never have
made that change but for the fact that they were facing a bunch of
lawsuits."

Miller and his associates have also uncovered evidence that Remington
developed a safer gun with its new bolt-action rifle, or NBAR, program but
never manufactured it. The company also tried to keep documents about the
NBAR program out of court, but more than 20 judges ruled the company needed
to release its records, according to Business Week.

"The NBAR program had as its goal improvement of the defective fire control
on the Model 700," wrote Texas Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Dogget in
December 1992. "(The documents) provide evidence of great significance ...
as to Remington's knowledge of defects and of its ability to implement safer
alternative designs." .......

All the evidence of what Remington knew or didn't do doesn't help the Barber
family, Rich Barber, Gus's father said Wednesday. But he does feel the
company was "unconscionable" by not notifying the public about the problem.

"My son is a statistic," Rich Barber said. "He was one of 20,000 potential
problems Remington knew about."

While the Barbers have been in contact with Miller, Barber said the family
has not decided what to do on a legal front. For now, his focus is on
educating everyone he can about the gun that killed his son.

"We are considering (a lawsuit) at this time, but it's not one of my
priorities," he said. "It's the middle of hunting season in Montana now. I
want to make a difference."

In the two weeks since his son's death, Rich Barber has been in contact with
the news media trying to spread the word about the dangers of Remington's
bolt action rifle.

He's also contacted several local schools offering to speak to classes about
the gun and gun safety or be interviewed by the school paper's reporters,
hoping that he can teach a new generation of hunters about the gun.

Barber stressed repeatedly that this is not an anti-gun issue.

"It's a gun-safety issue," he said.

For 12 years he and his family had been happy with the Remington Model 700,
he said. "It would out shoot anything that came out of the box. It was a
very accurate weapon and a fine weapon for my family."

The Barbers have another Remington Model 700, bought after being so pleased
with the first one. Rich Barber now looks at his remaining rifle and he's
not sure what to do with it.

Miller said there are only two things that can be done with the Remington
Model 700 to eliminate the problems. First is to get the bolt lock removed
on models made prior to 1982. Second is to go to a gunsmith and have a new,
after-market firing system of another brand installed.

Barber wants to pass this information along to as many people as he can,
believing he only has a two-week window to do because that's as long as the
general public will remember his son's death.

He's also asking people to contact him about any mishaps they had with the
Remington Model 700 series. In a small circle of friends, he said he already
knows of 14 confirmed cases and four possible ones.

"My goal is to document as many cases to show that the 1 percent (Remington
claims is susceptible to the problem) is inaccurate in the hope that their
consciousness will catch up with them and recall the weapon," Rich Barber
said.

"My emotion is gone. My mission now is to save lives. I didn't ask for this.
I didn't search it out. It came to me. It's a God-given mission," he said.
 
Seems to me that about 10 or so years ago, Jeff Cooper wrote something about Remington triggers malfunctioning on safari....

+++++++++++++++++++++++

At any rate, I'm moving this thread to the Art of the Rifle Forum, where I know some guys hang out for that topic only.

L.P.
 
One of the reasons I prefer the firing pin block type saftey of the Model 70. But those can fire as you take the saftey off also.
I really don't see why everyone gets so defensive when a flaw shows up in a gun. I own a model 700, if it has a problem, I want to know about it. I own a Glock that KB'd, I wish I'd have known about that!!

[Edited by Nukem on 01-29-2001 at 04:57 PM]
 
When my wife and I first started dating in 1987 she wanted to come hunting with me, but had no experience with centerfire rifles. I let her fire my Rem 700 25-06 and get the feel for it. She loved it. My safety briefing was short and sweet. I told her ALWAYS make sure where it is pointed at ALL times. ALWAYS unload it before getting in the truck, camper, or house, etc., and when getting in, or out, of a deer stand. Never point it at anything that you do not want to KILL, and to remember it will penetrate 2 wood frame homes so know what is behind the target also. The trigger is adjusted to 4# on that 25 and I have never had a problem with it. The second season (1988) we were returning to my truck after a hunt. I dropped the tailgate and unloaded my 700 (7MM Mag.) and layed it in the bed of the truck. My wife was standing behind me unloading the 25 when it fired! My back was turned and talk about a gut wrenching feeling. I turned around and she was massaging her stomach where the butt had hit her during recoil. She had take the safety briefing to heart and shot a hole in the SKY. I did my damndest to get that rifle to fire when it was not supposed to and never could do it. She thinks that she may have had a finger on the trigger when she released the safety to unload it. I have owned 700's since 65 and have never had a problem with them. With this incident I am not sure if it was the rifle or a finger on the trigger, but I like her, suspect a finger on the trigger. I still have never been able to make any of the 700's fire when I do not want them to. Thank God she listened to me (about the only time she did listen to me ) when I told her to watch where it was pointed at ALL times. It did scare her, but again Thank God, she did not lose her new found love for hunting or shooting.
I guess the thing I am trying to say it that if you handle enough firearms an AD PROBABLY will happen, but if you realize this and keep that muzzle in a safe direction it may mess up your pants but will do no person any harm.
 
Based on the small portion in which i just read, the person using the rifle must be a moron. It should be a general principle to not fire a gun at anything that isnt a target like object, not just some random thing in yard. Even if you are going to do that... you dont do it with kids around. Use some damn brains. And as for slamfires, well it happens and every gun owner knows that and is aware of the possibility. Now because of this incident, the anti-gunners are going to get another ban put on us. And then they are going to blame remington and thats only the begining of the sh*t hitting the fan. And if it is a faulty rifle by Remington, they probably will make a recall on it and take blame. And its still going to be blown way out of proportion. And even though its the fault of some stupid schmuck not using his brain all of us will pay in one way or another, be it a ban or a recall or whatnot... it will affect us all...
 
I can see another unsafe gun kept from the masses but OK'ed for the police and military. As sad as the loss of a family member is, why was the gun pointing at something the handler did not want killed. Seems like all to often we expect technology and mechanical gadgets to replace common sense and each and every time we are proven to be idiots for doing so. Every gun out there can have some malfunction that could result in an AD. It is the nature of things mechanical and one we have to always be prepared for. Why cant people deal with that fact???

As for why the Marines havent had problems with their M40's. 1) The marines handling those weapons are very skilled shooters and not your average hunter who takes his gun out of the cabinet once a year. and 2) Marine M40 variants are comletely hand built by very skilled craftsmen; not mass produced by line workers.
 
AFAIK the Montana death had the bullet going through a horse trailer to hit the guy. The guy that was shot was not in view of the rifle's operator.

On another note:

Remington supposed to come out with a key lock bolt on their 700s. :barf:
 
I also think that the boy was not in view, but IMHO that is not an excuse. that is exactly the reason when I gave the wife the safety briefing that I mentioned the penetrating factor to her. (see my previous post)
 
My understanding is that the older 700's that had the two lever sear could possibly fire if there was wear in the sear that contacted the safety. It can still happen with the new 700's if there is wear. Any firearm can malfuntion if there is wear in the sear/safety components. This is why it is important to have your firearm safety checked by a good smith from time to time. As said by others, if all firearms were pointed in a safe direction when loaded, there would be no accidents due to AD's.
If people took responsibilty for their own actions, there would be alot less bottom feeders. What a great concept!
John K
 
This is usually the result of failure of the sear to reset, which can be caused either by tampering with the trigger or by the trigger housing shifting on the rifle. Failure to reset happens when the gun is loaded, the safety applied, and the trigger pulled. Many people do this habitually to "test" the safety. But if the sear fails to reset, the rifle will fire when the safety is released.

The same thing can happen to other rifles, but usually only when the mechanism is tampered with.

Needless to say, no one planning a lawsuit will admit to doing anything wrong. "The rifle pointed..." "The gun went off..." "My car ran into the boy..." "The bus ran the red light..." No human agency is ever involved.

Jim
 
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