Legal Question in Product Liability in Pennsylvania

Re: product defect

Good to hear he's okay!

If you didn't modify the gun, then your claim is actionable, most likely under strict liability since either the gun or the bullet was unreasonably dangerous when it was manufactured. The real issue is your damages. Though emotional distress does carry some value, typically those claims require additional proof such as the costs of psychiatric care, so understand that your claim may not carry the big dollar signs you may have heard.

You should speak with a personal injury or product liability attorney promptly. You can contact me at the information below and we can discuss your case, or you can find other attorneys either through this site, through sites like Martindale.com, or through the Pennsylvania or your local county Bar Association.

Re: product defect

You asked about a possibly defective handgun.

It doesn't sound like the shooter was physically injured. This will limit damages to a great degree.

More significant is that the case will be difficult to prove as a defect of design or manufacture. A number of factors would come into play each of which would need to be established by a preponderance of the evidence before even filing a complaint. Was the ammunition defective? Who made it? If it was a handload, then how qualified was the loader? Was the weapon modified? Was the weapon properly cared for and maintained? Why did the gun misfire?

Off the top of my head, the banana effect makes it sound like an obstruction was in the end of the barrel. This is often caused by a previous bullet that didn't exit the barrel (a dud or squib load). The subsequent bullet has no place to go and the pressure propelling the bullet has no place to go. Normally the expanding explosive gas would propel the bullet, in this case the expanding gases had to go someplace.

You may be able to obtain some recovery but my guess would be that an attorney would require you to prepay costs. These would include the costs of engineers to examine the weapon and otherwise opine on the situation.

You could pursue this matter, but consider the fact that no litigation is easy. how much of a headache would you like to take on to get a moderate recovery?

I'd suggest keeping the weapon as a memento. Maybe display it as an advertisement as to why people should not purchase a weapon from that manufacturer.

Regards,

Roger