Just yesterday CNN reported that Ilene Steur, who was injured in the shooting attack on the New York City subway in April, is suing gun manufacturer Glock over its marketing practices and distribution strategy that she says allowed the suspect to acquire one of the company's products.
Steur's suit names
Georgia-based Glock Inc. as well as its Austrian parent company, Glock
Ges.m.b.H, as defendants.
Steur, a Brooklyn
resident was riding the subway on her way to office when the shooter Frank
James set off two smoke grenades inside the train car and went on to open fire.
Ten people were shot
in the attack, including Steur. The bullet fractured part of Steur's spine just
above her tailbone and ripped through her rectum. Her lawsuit says she suffered
"serious and permanent personal injuries" that left her unable to
perform normal activities, her lawsuit says.
Steur’s lawsuit
follows the landmark $73 million settlement in February paid by gun maker Remington to families of the
victims of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
The families argued the company recklessly marketed the Bushmaster AR-15-style
rifle to young adults.
We must be
sympathetic with any victim of violence such as the one that occurred in
Brooklyn. Injuries such as those endured by Steur could be life-altering and
permanent. Perhaps healing takes ages. Perhaps the injury is permanent. The
pain to the individual and those around is inexplicable. The psychological
scars will always remain in addition to the physical injuries.
Steur said in a
statement her
"I always see on
the news about people — innocent people — getting shot, and my heart goes out
to the victims and their families. I never thought I would be one of those
victims.”
"There has got
to be better control of who gets their hands on these guns,"
The shooter Frank
James used a Glock 9 mm handgun to fire at least 33 rounds on a crowded train,
officials said. James has pleaded not guilty to terrorism and gun charges.
James had a
significant social media presence, appearing myriad
YouTube videos ranting against Caucasian
people.
So where does it stop
if we go down this road of suing manufacturer?
Last year, a
car ploughed through a Christmas parade in the US state of Wisconsin,
killing five and injuring at least 40 people, according to the City of Waukesha.
Earlier this year,
a car ploughed into a crowd of early morning carnival-goers in
Belgium, killing six people and injuring dozens of others.
Should the car
manufacturers be sued for the attack?
The UK has strict gun
laws, which probably explains the rise in the number of knife-related crimes.
By the end of September 2021, the UK police had recorded over 46,239
knife-related offenses.
Should victims sue
knife manufacturers?
What about cases of
drunk driving.
Nancy Pelosi’s
husband Paul
Pelosi crashed his car near San Mateo in the early hours of Feb. 22, 1957,
the Daily Mail reported. The crash killed Paul’s older brother.
Paul was
recently arrested over
suspicion of drunk driving late on Saturday in Napa County, California after
being involved in a two-vehicle crash.
Should the victims
sue makers of Jack Daniels be sued in addition to the car manufacturers?
Let's say you
accidentally ensure superficial scalds because you unknowing opened the hot
water tap in your hotel bathroom because you had a bit too much to drink?
Should the makers of
Jack Daniels and the Hotel’s management be sued in addition to the car
manufacturers? How about also taking Kohler to court because they manufactured the
taps?
What if someone is at
an art exhibition and an assailant strikes a victim with a replica of the
Excalibur?
Should the
manufacturer of the replica be sued or should it be the iron smelter?
If we go down this
road, where do we stop?
There is an implicit
contract between the buyer and the manufacturer that the appliance will
function as specified in the manual and obviously anything unexpected will not
occur.
A manufacturer can
only be held responsible if an appliance malfunctions.
Quite often
manufacturers recall defective items from the market.
Toyota recently
recalled about
460,000 vehicles in the U.S. to fix a software problem that can
inadvertently disable the electronic stability control system. If a driver
sustains injuries owing to this defect the manufacturer can be sued.
Perhaps an appliance
does have adequate warnings about the risks during usage and causes injuries.
There is ample reason to initiate legal proceedings.
But what the
manufacturer cannot be held responsible for is the misuse of appliances.
If one has the
intentions, any item from kitchen appliances to stationery to even a Church
bell can be used to cause harm.
Back to the situation
in Brooklyn that caused Ilene Steur life-altering injuries.
The only groups
Steur should sue are the shooter Frank James, and perhaps the NYC subway
authorities for allowing a heavily armed man with smoke bombs to enter the
subway train. She could also NYC mayor and the governor for presiding over a
crime wave that caused her grievous injuries.
In the end, a Glock
is a product like any other, if it is legally available in NYC, the
manufacturer is at liberty to market their legally available product the way
they deem suitable. No manufacturer can be held responsible if a buyer misuses
it.
But the goal of this
lawsuit seems political.
It is interesting to
note that Steur didn’t sue Glock immediately after the Brooklyn subway
shooting. It was only after the two
other recent mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and another at an
elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that she choose to take legal action.
New York is the only state with legislation signed by Gov. Andrew
Cuomo in March 2021, that allows citizens to bring civil lawsuits against gun
manufacturers to hold them responsible for individuals’ use of their products.
In all other states, federal law protects manufacturers from being liable for
public harm caused by users of their products.
If Glock is indeed
found guilty, this could set a dicey precedence.
Each and every manufacturer will be at risk of being sued following misuse!
Comments
Post a Comment