I have a policy in my shop that any safety feature that is not working 100% on a firearm will be fixed or I will not take the gun in for repair.
Just after Christmas an 18 year old kid that lives across the street from me brought in a Mossberg 835 for repair. In doing my pre checks I noticed that the Safety did not work. I told him that the safety also needed repair. He did not want to spend the money to fix the safety, so I refused the repair job. He finally said O.K. I repaired the problem he had brought the gun in for and put in a missing safety transfer bar. After the repair I test fired the firearm and checked all safety features. I gave the gun back to him on New Years Eve. Less than 5 hours after returning the shotgun to him, he drove to a remote location and put the muzzle of that same shotgun in his mouth, then pulled the trigger. The local Police ruled that he had taken his own life. In talking with one of the officers, the officer related to me that they had checked out the shotgun and found it to be in perfect working order.
Two thing to learn from this: If I had returned the shotgun with the safety not working, I could have been faced with a very expensive lawsuit. Second, I have the peace of mind knowing that his death was not caused by my returning an unsafe firearm that may have discharged accidently.
It is a sad thing when anyone takes their life. I later found out that one hour before killing himself he had recieved some bad news.
We have had several kids take their own life here in the last few months. Please make sure that every firearm returned is a safe one and talk with your own kids. Make sure that you know what is going on in their lives.
Best Wishes to all - John K
Just after Christmas an 18 year old kid that lives across the street from me brought in a Mossberg 835 for repair. In doing my pre checks I noticed that the Safety did not work. I told him that the safety also needed repair. He did not want to spend the money to fix the safety, so I refused the repair job. He finally said O.K. I repaired the problem he had brought the gun in for and put in a missing safety transfer bar. After the repair I test fired the firearm and checked all safety features. I gave the gun back to him on New Years Eve. Less than 5 hours after returning the shotgun to him, he drove to a remote location and put the muzzle of that same shotgun in his mouth, then pulled the trigger. The local Police ruled that he had taken his own life. In talking with one of the officers, the officer related to me that they had checked out the shotgun and found it to be in perfect working order.
Two thing to learn from this: If I had returned the shotgun with the safety not working, I could have been faced with a very expensive lawsuit. Second, I have the peace of mind knowing that his death was not caused by my returning an unsafe firearm that may have discharged accidently.
It is a sad thing when anyone takes their life. I later found out that one hour before killing himself he had recieved some bad news.
We have had several kids take their own life here in the last few months. Please make sure that every firearm returned is a safe one and talk with your own kids. Make sure that you know what is going on in their lives.
Best Wishes to all - John K