A New Orleans judge has ordered an Italian gunmaker to pay $10.8 million to a man paralyzed in 1992 when he dropped his pistol and was shot in the neck.
Fratelli Tanfoglio S.R.L. manufactured the .25-caliber pistol with a firing pin that was too long, U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon ruled in a lawsuit brought by 52-year-old Arnold Jackson.
“Gun manufacturers have an obligation to reasonably anticipate that owners of guns, will, at some point, unexpectedly drop them,” Lemmon said.
“The manufacture of the pistol with a defective firing pin made it virtually certain that the gun would fire if dropped or bumped on its hammer.”
The judge’s ruling was filed Dec. 31, and the 30-day appeal period passed without an appeal being filed.
A spokesman for the American Shooting Sports Council, an organization of gunmakers, said the firm, which did not defend itself in court, won’t have to pay unless Jackson sues in Italy and wins.
