Guns and firearm safety remains a big topic in politics and in the media, but often it isn’t until gun safety affects the lives of ordinary citizens that many people pay closer attention. When a firearm turns out to be defective and causes serious injury or death, the subject attracts even more scrutiny. This is the case with Remington, a well-known company known for manufacturing a wide assortment of firearms.

Remington was the subject of a CNBC report in 2010, which found that the company had over 75 products liability lawsuits filed against it. Each one alleged that certain rifle models with the X-Mark Pro trigger would fire without touching the trigger. Reportedly, even more lawsuits alleging problems with the guns’ trigger assembly have been filed against Remington since the report aired.

Perhaps in response to these lawsuits, Remington issued a recall last month of its Model Seven and Model 700 rifles manufactured from May 2006 through April 9, 2014 that feature the X-Mark Pro trigger. The company says that some of the rifles might contain an excess of a bonding agent that may cause them to fire accidentally fire.

Despite the media attention, the report and the numerous lawsuits, Richard Barber, a Montana father who filed a suit against Remington, said the company deserves praise for its recall of the rifle alleged to have caused the death of his child, a 9-year-old boy. The boy was killed in 2000 when his mother was unloading a Remington 700 series bolt-action rifle, and the firearm went off accidentally.

Barber’s lawsuit led Remington to recall 2.5 million firearms for modification of the safety on its bolt-action rifles manufactured before 1982. Barber’s case also serves as an excellent example of the impact consumers can make in a products liability lawsuit. While the legal team representing the plaintiff in a defective products lawsuit fills an important role, survivors, victims and family members ultimately have real power to affect change.

Source: ABC News, “Father Commends Remington for Rifle Recall” No author given, May. 08, 2014