← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Malachi
Thread ID: 3541 | Posts: 6 | Started: 2002-11-16
2002-11-16 01:06 | User Profile
**[url=http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200211%5CNAT20021115d.html]Florida Jury Assigns Small Part of Blame to Gun Distributor[/url]
By Jim Burns CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer November 15, 2002
(CNSNews.com) - The verdict in a Florida gun trial has gun-control groups applauding, and pro-gun groups promising to appeal.
On Thursday, a Palm Beach County jury ordered the Valor Corporation, the distributor of a pistol used to kill a teacher, to pay the teacher's widow $1.2 million out of a total judgment of $24 million.
The jurors - six women - said Valor should assume the smallest share of the blame for Barry Grunow's murder, because the pistol used to kill him didn't have a safety feature, such as a trigger lock, that could have prevented the killer (a student) from using it.
The jurors decided the gun's owner bears 50 percent of the blame for Barry Grunow's murder, since he hadn't locked up his gun; and it said the Palm Beach County School Board should bear 45 percent of the blame for failing to prevent an armed student from entering the school building.
But, since neither the gun's owner nor the school board was a defendant in the civil trial, neither will have to pay damages. Both previously settled with Grunow's widow.
The Law Enforcement Alliance of America Friday called the jury's verdict a mockery of justice and common sense.
LEAA was incensed that the jury did not find any liability on the part of the student, Nathaniel Brazill, who actually aimed the gun at the teacher and pulled the trigger.
LEAA Executive Director James Fotis said, "If you point a gun at another human being and pull the trigger, any person, including Nathaniel Brazill, knows what will happen."
"The gun is not defective, Nathaniel Brazill is; and the gun distributor is not responsible, Nathaniel Brazill is," said Fotis.
Fotis added, "The lawyer who filed this bogus lawsuit said this case isn't about guns, and he is right - this is about a shameless attempt by liberal extremists who seek to place blame anywhere but in the hands of the criminals who commit the crimes. It's a shameless act and a grave threat to the integrity of our justice system."
Pamela Grunow, the teacher's widow, was represented by attorney Dennis Henigan of the Brady Center against Gun Violence. He said this is the first time a jury has reached a verdict against a company for distributing "junk guns," which lack safety features that might prevent children and other unauthorized persons from using them.
"The gun industry makes choices every day that jeopardize public safety," said Henigan. "This distributor made a choice to sell notorious crime guns with no safety features to protect against misuse. It thought it would never be held accountable. It was wrong.
"If the gun had been equipped with a simple lock, Brazill could have found it, but he couldn't have used it," added Henigan. "Barry Grunow would be alive today."
Pamela Grunow's lawsuit was viewed as an attempt to target small, cheap pistols that critics call "Saturday night specials." Such guns, the lawsuit said, are easily obtained and used by juveniles and criminals, and can be confused with toy pistols.
Grunow was shot and killed on May 26, 2000, when Nathaniel Brazill - then a 13-year-old student at Lake Worth Middle School - came into Grunow's classroom and shot him with a .25 caliber semi-automatic pistol. The gun was made by the now-defunct Raven Arms of California and distributed by the defendant, Valor Corporation of Florida.
School security cameras taped the shooting. Brazill, now 16 years old, was convicted and is now serving a 28-year prison sentence.
Both sides said they plan to appeal Thursday's verdict. Grunow's attorneys want her to collect the full $24 million jury award from Valor. But attorneys for Valor say even 5 percent of that amount - $1.2 million - is too much. **
2002-11-16 02:25 | User Profile
Originally posted by Malachi@Nov 16 2002, 01:06 > [url=http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200211%5CNAT20021115d.html]Florida Jury Assigns Small Part of Blame to Gun Distributor[/url]
By Jim Burns CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer November 15, 2002
(CNSNews.com) - The verdict in a Florida gun trial has gun-control groups applauding, and pro-gun groups promising to appeal.
On Thursday, a Palm Beach County jury ordered the Valor Corporation, the distributor of a pistol used to kill a teacher, to pay the teacher's widow $1.2 million out of a total judgment of $24 million.
The jurors - six women ... ** **
I hate to say it, but the description of the "jurors" sums of much of the problems we now encounter due to chosenite manipulation of the media, and hence law and government. All things spread from this triumvirate under hostile control.
2002-11-16 02:37 | User Profile
The Valor Corporation are the only - the ONLY - players in this story that might've saved Grunow. But people like the Grunows and their ilk, gun-grabbing tikkun-olaners all, who helped to create all our Nathaniel Brazills by legislating their Good Intentions down all of our throats, will continue to pretend not to understand that the solution to Nathaniel Brazill is a gun, and the necessary training to use it, in easy reach of every man and woman in America.
I also wonder what Mrs Grunow's feelings about taking firearms away from Israeli citizens might be.
2002-11-16 23:00 | User Profile
"If the gun had been equipped with a simple lock, Brazill could have found it, but he couldn't have used it," added Henigan. "Barry Grunow would be alive today."
Ample reason to be against gun locks.
Roy, I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. It's an infuriating fact of life that the great mass of women are simply incapable of calm, rational judgment. They saw the widowed jewess crying crocodile tears and thought "Poor thing! I'm gonna make those gun bastards pay for this!"
2002-11-17 05:00 | User Profile
When white liberals reap what they have sown and suffer the death of a loved one at the hands of a black they generally go after guns. It is too hard for them to come to grips with black criminality and too easy in our current debased culture to blame the gun.
This shyster lawyer probably settled low with the owner (probably judgment-proof) and the school board, but I am at a loss to understand why the gun distributor's lawyers did not interplead them. The silly soccer moms in the jury might have thought twice about such such an outrageous award if the school board had to pick up the tab on a large share of this ridiculous verdict.
2002-11-17 17:57 | User Profile
The gun wasn't defective. The distributor wasn't deceptive nor broke any laws. The law doesn't require gun locks. The case should have been thrown out for lack of merit.
Juries composed of women and blacks cannot render fair and civil verdicts except by coincidence. Women are too emotional and increasingly leftist. Blacks are too racist and leftist. To anyone reading this who might disagree, an attack against me for saying this does nothing to refute the evidence that the satement is solidly based on.