You may remember the story of a Little Rock, Arkansas attorney who handles cases in which BB gun (or "airgun") users have been seriously injured due to defects in the guns.
We now have an important update on this story: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has filed a lawsuit against Daisy Manufacturing company to recall two models of Daisy's "Powerline" airguns.
The lawsuit "seeks to compel Daisy to notify consumers that the model 880 and model 856 Powerline Airguns are defective, and present a substantial risk of death or injury to anyone using the airgun," a news release from the CPSC announced.
"CPSC's staff has learned of at least 15 deaths and 171 serious injuries that have been attributed to alleged design and manufacturing defects," the CPSC says. "About 80 percent of those who have been killed or injured by the airguns were children under the age of 16. Children have been killed after being shot in the head or chest. Other children have been seriously injured after B.B.s punctured the heart, spinal cord, or skull, causing paralysis and brain damage."
The Little Rock attorney mentioned above has been handling BB gun injury cases for plaintiffs for more than 10 years. He has said that one of the dangers of modern BB guns is the ability to expel BB projectiles with extreme air pressure.
The attorney noted that some models of airguns are designed so that they can be pumped repeatedly, allowing enough pressure to build up to fire a BB at a rate of up to 1,100 feet per second - enough to pierce the skull, heart or other vital organ of anyone standing nearby. And many purchasers and users don't know this.
The attorney also said that a BB could become lodged in a narrow passage near the barrel cartridge, leading the user to believe all the projectiles had been shot.
a residual BB could eventually fall into place and accidentally discharge while users were playing and "shooting air" at one another.
That may be what happened in a recent case reportedly settled in Pennsylvania.
In that case, reported in the March 16, 2001 edition of the Legal Intelligencer, a teenager was severely brain-damaged when his friend, believing that his Daisy Powerline BB gun was out of ammunition, accidentally shot him.
The Little Rock attorney has had several clients suffer the same kinds of fates because of BB
His first case involved a 10-year-old boy who was shot in the heart and became a paraplegic due to oxygen loss to his brain.
In 1996, he represented a Marquette, Michigan, youth who became partially paralyzed after being shot through the skull with an air rifle.
Both the Little Rock attorney and the attorneys for the Pennsylvania plaintiff alerted the CPSC to the dangers of these guns.
For more information on the CPSC's recommendations regarding these airguns, go to the CPSC web site at or call the CPSC's contact for this case Scott Wolfson, at (301) 504-0580 Ext. 118.
Boyle is president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. Rieders, president of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, is a partner in the Williamsport law firm Rieders, Travis, Humphrey, Harris, Waters and Waffenschmidt.
