Wednesday, November 04, 2009

RTFM.

So the guy who managed to blow his finger mostly off with the jet of hot gasses from the barrel/cylinder gap on a S&W 460XVR sued, because he claimed that the instruction manual didn't warn him not to.

The judge apparently pointed him to the part of the S&W revolver instruction manual where it says "Keep fingers and other parts of your body away from the muzzle and away from the gap between revolver barrel and cylinder." At least, that's what it says in the first S&W manual I could lay hands on, a 9/98 revision that shipped with my PC627; the one with the XVR might have some asterisks and exclamation points and daggers and stuff. Anyway, he got sent home sadder, wiser, and poorer. And short a finger.

The moral of this story? There are two: "Read the frickin' instructions, there, Enrico Fermi," and "Is gun. Is not safe."

Meanwhile, SayUncle wonders at the fact that the suit was even brought. After all, didn't the media tell us that the Evil Bush Administration caved to the big bad firearms industry and wrote a special law protecting gun manufacturers from all lawsuits for ever and ever?

12 comments:

TD said...

The only sad part is, I don't see any mention of the idjit being forced to pay S&W's legal fees.

Tam said...

Yup, and his guy was probably running on a contingency basis, so there's no negative reinforcement for bringing a boneheaded suit.

Borepatch said...

In other news of the fingerless:

Man sues manufacturer of hydraulic log splitter for selling him the implement if his finger's destruction. Man loses.

Man sues manufacturer of Chef knife for selling him the implement if his finger's destruction. Man loses.

Man sues manufacturer of table saw for selling him the implement if his finger's destruction. Man loses.

The common mistake by the plaintiffs is not blaming things on Global Warming.

OA said...

Any bets his grandad lost a finger in a wringer washer?

Boat Guy said...

"...sadder, poorer..." to be sure; I wouldn't necessarily bet on him taking the opportunity to become "wiser".
Spot on about the lack of negative reinforcement for bringing suits such as this. Jeez do we EVER need that to happen! (Ain't holdin my breath on that),

dave said...

Yup, and his guy was probably running on a contingency basis, so there's no negative reinforcement for bringing a boneheaded suit.
There is for the lawyer.

The Raving Prophet said...

A local guy here in STL did the same thing, only with his left thumb. I've seen pics- it was grisly (he had bought the gun from my favorite shop).

I do not believe he sued- he knew he had done stupid and it just happened to exact a higher price than if he'd done the same with a .357.

Rabbit said...

Like one of my rotating sigfiles states,

"Warning labels thwart the purpose of natural selection".

Regards,
Rabbit.

Joanna said...

Makes me think of the apocryphal chainsaw warning label: "Do not attempt to stop blade with hands or genitals."

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

"(But attempting to stop the blade with zombies is just fine.)"

H said...

Yes, he lost a finger, but look on the bright side!

He's gained a nickname!

Nub, Stumpy, something like that.

Gewehr98 said...

Saw something similar when the .454 Casull first hit the market. No lawsuit there, the guy knew what he did wrong, posthaste.