ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 7, 2003

Bruce Jennings, founder of defendant Bryco Arms, has sold millions of easily concealable, cheap guns frequently used by criminals and known as "Saturday Night Specials."

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A jury awarded $51 million Wednesday to a boy who was accidentally shot and paralyzed in 1994.

An Alameda County jury awarded the damages to Brandon Maxfield two weeks after concluding that a Costa Mesa gun maker, Bryco Arms, was partially liable for the accidental shooting of the boy when he was seven.

Maxfield was shot in the jaw with a .38-caliber handgun that a family friend was trying to unload.

But it is unclear whether the verdict will survive. The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed a bill to protect gun makers and distributors from being sued for damages resulting from their products. The bill is now awaiting Senate action.

Two weeks ago, the jury found Bryco 10 percent liable after concluding the company manufactured a defective firearm. To unload the weapon, a user must first [disengage the safety] -- a dangerous and flawed system, according to the boy's attorney, Richard Ruggieri.

The gun's distributors were found 30 percent liable.

Calls to Bryco went unanswered.

The jury said that one-third of blame for the shooting falls on Maxfield's parents for leaving a loaded weapon in their Willits home. Jurors also found the shooter, family friend William Moreford, 20 percent liable.

If the award survives, each party may have to pay its percentage of the liability.

"It could potentially be wiped out by the gun-immunity bill that is pending in Congress right now," said [attorney] Victoria Ni of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, which frequently sues the gun industry.

The case is Maxfield v. Bryco, 841636.